DESCRIPTION OF THE COPPINIA OF AN AUSTRALIAN HYDROIP 



By E. A. Briggs, B.Sc, 

 (Lecturer in Zoology, University of Sydney.) 

 (^Yith a Figure in the text.) 



In the report on the "Hydrozoa (Hydroid Zoophytes and Stylasterina)" 

 obtained by the "Thetis" Expedition during trawling operations within the one 

 hundred fathom line off the coast of New South Wales, Dr. Ritchie (7) described, 

 under the name of Lictorella concinna, a small number of colonies from Station 

 44, off Coogee, five to six miles from shore; depth, 49 to 50 fathoms. He had 

 only sterile specimens for examination, but several fine colonies of this species, 

 on one of which I found a coppinia mass, occur among some hydroids which 

 were recently dredged off Botany Bay, N.S. Wales, at a depth of 50 fathoms. 

 These specimens are somewhat larger than those originally described and reach 

 a height of 30 mm. 



The coppinia, which, as far as I am aware, has not hitherto been observed, 

 consists of a mass of loosely aggregated gonangia, and probably indicates a 

 transition between those forms in which the gonangia are firmly bound to each 

 other and those with separated gonangia. 



Text-fig. 1. — Lictorella concinna. A. Gonangium seen in frontal aspect. 

 B. Coppinia on main stem. C. Gonangium seen in lateral aspect. 



