I. 



The Alcyonaria of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-1918, 



with a Revision of some other Canadian genera 



and species. 



By A. E. Vehrill, 



Professor Emeritus of Yale University. 



(With nineteen plates and thirteen text figures). 



I. 



Suborder Alcyonacea Verrill, 1865. 



Family NEPTHYID^E. 

 Gersemia Marenzeller (emended). 



Alcyoniumipars) of earh' authors. 



Gersemia Marenzeller, op. cit., p. 375, 1878. Type G. fruticosa (as G. florida, 



non Rathke). 

 Voeringia (-pars) Daniellssen, N. Nordhavs — Exped., Alcyonida, p. 1, 1887, 



+ Krystallofanes + Fidla + Sarakka, Dan., op. cit., 1887. 

 Eunephthya {pars) Ktjkenthal, DeutBch. Tiefsee — Exped. (Valdivia Exped.), 



Alcyonaria, Vol. XIII, pp. 73-74, 1906 (non Verrill, 1869). Jungersen 



(pars), op. cit , p. 9. 1916. 

 Paraspongodes (jxirs) Ktjkenthal, 1896. May, Ale. Ost-Spitz., Zool. Jahrb. 



Syst., Abt. Vol. xi, pp. 388-97, 1898. Studer, Camp. Hirondelle, p. 31, 



1901 

 Gersemia Molandt;r, Northern Arctic Invert. Alcyonacea, p. 48, 1915. 



Polypidom, when well grown, more or less branched from a flexible main 

 stalk, which may be naked or bear some scattered polyps: cortex or wall of 

 the stalk and of stems of branches are muscular and capable of -considerable 

 contraction. It contains numerous minute rough, spinulose, lolsed, or warted 

 spicules, mostly short spindles and doulile spindles, ellipsoids, dumb-bell forms, 

 etc., but usuallj' not enough to form a firm crust: often hardly enough to give a 

 fine granulose appearance under a lens: so that the surface often appears nearly 

 smooth, except for the wrinkles caused by contraction. 



Interiors of stalks of branches and main stem contain a number of large 

 •longitudinal tulies, separated l)y rather thin muscular walls, usually containing 

 a few spicules. The branches may be absent when young, but numerous and 

 subdivided when full gro^vn. 



The polyps, in expansion, are elongated, arising from low, or often oljscure, 

 calicles, mostly clustered on the sides and tips of the Ijranches. The cahcles 

 may be separated Ijy an evident amount of ecenench^'ma, often very little 

 or none. 



The polyp-bodies, outside of the calicles, are distinctly divided into two 

 regions by differences in spiculation, and often bj^ a constriction or change in 

 size. The distal or stomodeal region, called the anthococha, is often larger 

 and always firmer than the mesenterial or proximal region, because it is filled 

 with more abundant and larger spicules. 



9343—11 



