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The Philippine Journal of Science 



1914 



seem to me to be of generic value. In my study of a large col- 

 lection of Lemnalia in which Lemnalioides kiikenthali was at 

 first included, I found that the differences between it and any 

 species of Lemnalia in the collection were so much greater than 

 the differences between the most widely different species of Lem- 

 nalia that it seemed impossible to place- it with them in that 

 genus. With the addition of the five species transferred from 

 Lithophytum and the new Philippine species, the genus Lemnalia 

 will contain some 20 or more species. As further collections in 

 the Philippines and elsewhere will undoubtedly add to this 

 number and as these species are closely related and very dif- 

 ficult to differentiate from descriptions without specimens for 

 comparison, the separation from the genus of any 

 natural group seems to be amply justified. 



The Philippine species of Lemnalia all show on 

 dissection more or less numerous, characteristic 

 spicules in the walls of the stomodseum (fig. 7). 

 I have found no references to such spicules in any 

 species of Nephthyidse except Gersemnia studer 

 (Koch). Gray (1866), Bourne (1900), and 

 ^C>£ Kukenthal (1903 and 1913) evidently overlooked 

 these spicules, and I have no doubt that a re- 

 examination of the type specimens would show 

 them to be present in all the known species of 

 Lemnalia. This oversight is not to be wondered 

 at as these spicules are very seldom to be seen 

 unless the stomodasum is dissected away from the 

 rest of the polyp and would not be discovered 

 except by accident or by a more thorough mor- 

 phological investigation than is usually under- 

 taken in purely systematic work. They would 

 probably escape detection in a histological investigation, also, such 

 as that made by Bourne (1900) as the material must be decalcified 

 before sectioning. I found dissection under the binocular mi- 

 croscope of specimens cleared in clove oil to be the best method 

 of separating the stomodseum and studying the spicules of its 

 walls. I have examined the stomodseal walls of several of the 

 species of Lithophytum, Nephthya, Dendronephthya, Stereo- 

 nephthya, Capnella, and Siphonogorgia in our collection, but 

 find the stomodseum to be without spicules of any kind. In 

 Paralemnalia thrysoides, however, as I have mentioned above, 

 I found stomodseal spicules to be abundant. 



In all the Philippine species of Lemnalia, there is a single row 

 of pinnules on each side of the tentacle. Bourne (1900) notes 



Fig. 6. Two ten- 

 tacles from a 

 cleared specimen 

 of Lemnalioides 

 kiikenthali, show- 

 ing the median 

 muscle bands, 

 the double rows 

 of pinnules, and 

 the double rows 

 of polyp spicules. 

 X 48.6. 



