
=I 
POLYZOA OF THE L.M.B.C. DISTRICT. aA 
Ascopodaria nodosa, Lomas. 
Pedicellina gracilis, var. nodosa, ‘‘Fauna of Liverpool Bay,” vol. i. ; 
Ascopodaria nodosa, Lomas, ‘‘Proc. L’pool Lit. and Phil. Soc.,” 1886, 
vol. xli., p. xlvi. 
Zoarium consists of a slender chitinous stolon, from which 
branches, bearing polypides, are given off at intervals. 
Peduncle chitinous, hollow, expanding below into a 
muscular swelling. A second muscular swelling is found 
in the middle, and a third at the top, just under the head. 
This form was described in the ‘‘ First Report upon the 
Fauna of Liverpool Bay” (p. 190, pl. ii., fig. 2), under 
the name of Pedicellina gracilis, var. nodosa. Further 
research, however, led me to believe that it should be 
placed in the new genus lately founded by Busk, Asco- 
podaria (‘‘Challenger’’ Report, vol. xvi.) ; so in 1886 I 
described it as Ascopodaria nodosa, in a paper read before 
the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool. 
The characteristic features of the new genus mostly 
reside in the stem, which is chitinous, tubular, and rigid, 
and joins the stolon by a broad barrel-shaped dilatation. 
In A. nodosa, the ‘‘basal cylinder’’ is broad below, and 
tapers suddenly near the top, becoming continuous with 
the stem. It is not annulated like A. discreta. 
Separating the basal cylinder from the stem is a septum, 
which stretches nearly across, leaving a perforation in the 
middle. The whole swelling is filled with muscular tissue, 
which is prolonged for a short distance on each side into 
the stolon; and a septum, similar to the one in the stem, 
separates the muscular portion from the tubular stolon on 
each side. The septum may serve to give attachment to 
the muscles which have to do with the movement of the 
peduncle. 
The most striking feature, however, is the presence of a 
second swelling in the middle of the stem, muscular in 
