A. K Verrill — JVkw American Actinians. 493 



Art. LIII. — Descriptions of new American Actinians, with 

 critical notes on other species, I. ; by A. E. Verrill. Brief 

 Contributions to Zoology from the Jfuseum of Yale College. 

 No. LVIII. 



Sagartia Lucim, sp. no v. Figure 1, p. 497. 



A small, very smooth, highly contractile species. In usual 

 expansion the column may be cylindrical ; its height may be 

 less than its diameter or twice as great ; it is often distinctly 

 fluted, but has no trace of adhesive suckers. Cinclides are 

 not visible, but white acontia are emitted freely from the sides 

 of the body,- irregularly, and from the mouth. The column is 

 usually dark green, or olive-green, often tinged with orange, 

 and is striped with 12 (sometimes 24) narrow bright orange 

 or white lines, corresponding to the 12 larger tentacles and 

 mesenterial interspaces. 



Tentacles, in the larger examples, 60 to 84, more commonly 

 48, arranged in four ill defined rows, long, slender, tapered, 

 capable of sudden contraction ; the length of the 12 inner ones 

 is often twice the diameter of the body or more ; the two 

 directives (a, a') are slightly longer than the other primaries. 

 The tentacles are pale green or greenish white, sometimes 

 tinged with salmon, and sometimes specked with white ; the 

 larger ones are often darker green at base, and whitish on the 

 inner side of the base, especially the directives. 



Disk changeable, flat, concave or convex, greenish, marked 

 with narrow- dark radial lines and crossed by a conspicuous bar 

 of flake-white, in line with and including the bases of the 

 directive tentacles, and embracing the sides of the mouth ; 

 smaller radial white spots may stand in front of other tentacles. 

 Lips light red, with several small lateral folds and two 

 gonidial grooves. 



Height of column usually about -25 inch (5 to 8 mm ) ; diameter 

 4 to 6'" m ; length of tentacles 6 to 10 nim . 



New Haven, Conn., to Woods Holl, Mass., in tidal pools, 

 from half-tide to low-water mark, both freely exposed and 

 concealed under stones and in crevices. 



It is very abundant in the small tide-pools situated at about 

 half-tide on the ledges of " Outer Island," near New Haven, 

 where I have studied it during six seasons. In some of these 

 pools the water is not more than one or two inches deep and 

 in winter it freezes to solid ice each day ; while in summer it 

 becomes heated to 95° F., or even more, without injury to this 

 apparently delicate actinian. Moreover, when rain falls during 

 the recession of the tide, the sea-water in these small pools is 



