OF THE KERGUELEN REGION OF THE GREAT SOUTHERN OCEAN. 357 



Leptopenus 1 discus, Moseley. 



Hydroida : 



* Cryptolaria abyssicola,' 2 Allman. 

 * Halisiphonia megalotheca, 3 Allman. 

 Stephanoscyplws simplex, Allman, MS. 



Medusa : 



Atolla wyvillei, Haeckel. 

 *Pectis antarctica, Haeckel. 

 * Peri'phema regina, Haeckel. 

 *Thamnostylus dinema, Haeckel. 



SlPHONOPHOR^E : 



*Disconalia pectyllis, Haeckel. 



Crinoidea : 



Antedon 4 abyssicola, 5 Carpenter. 



than any other deep-sea coral, being, in fact, apparently universally distributed in deep water. It has also a wider 

 range in depth than any other animal, occurring in 30 fathoms off Bermuda, and in the East Pacific Ocean at a depth of 

 3 miles. It was dredged abundantly at Station 244, 2900 fathoms, the specimens being large and in full vigour, full 

 of ripe ova. Some specimens appear as if they had been broken and had reunited, or possibly they were when obtained 

 in the act of splitting up into fragments, or have a tendency to do so. — (Moseley, Zool. Chall. Exp., part 7, pp. 186-188.) 



1 I have founded this genus [Leptopenus] to contain two very remarkable corals, dredged in deep water, which are 

 so fragile that it is astonishing that they arrived at the surface in such good preservation as that in which they were 

 obtained. The two species differ markedly from one another, but have so many fundamental agreements that they 

 must evidently be placed in the same genus. They are evidently closely related to the Stephanophyllias, but their 

 corallum is so perforate as to be reduced to a mere lace-work. No corals immediately like them appear to have been 

 procured before, or since, either in the recent or fossil condition. Specimens belonging to the genus were dredged on 

 four occasions, all from deep water (over 1500 fathoms), and all in the Southern Hemisphere. — (Moseley, Zool. Chall. 

 Exp., part 7, p. 205.) 



1 The vast depth from which Cryptolaria abyssicola has been dredged (2600 fathoms) gives it a special interest, 

 which is greatly enhanced by the fact that it affords one of the very few instances as yet known in which the gonosome 

 )f (h-yptolaria has been detected. The scattered instead of distichous disposition of the hydrothecse is a peculiar and 

 ixceptional character. — (Allman, Zool. Chall. Exp., part 70, p. 40.) 



3 The genus Halisiphonia is represented in the Challenger collection by a single species, which presents many 

 >oints of special interest. . . . The very long tubular hydrothecae gradually passing into their long peduncles confer 

 n this remarkable species [Halisiphonia megalotheca'] an aspect as striking as it is distinctive. . . . The enormous 

 epth of 2600 fathoms from which both Halisiphonia megalotheca and Cryptolaria abyssicola were obtained has much 

 ignificance, in connection with the fact that in both species the gonangia are present, Halisiphonia megalotheca affording 

 ;ie only known instance, and Cryptolaria abyssicola one of the very few, in which any part of the gonosome has been 

 bserved in these genera.— (Allman, Zool. Chall. Exp., part 70, p. 31.) 



4 In discussing the distribution of Antedon and Actinometra, the two principal genera of Comatuke, it must 

 2 remembered that each of them, but especially Antedon, contains a very large number of species, and they should be 

 msidered for this purpose to represent subfamilies rather than genera. Thus, for example, the name Antedon is now 

 ven to all endocyclic Comatula? with the basals metamorphosed into a rosette, and five rays bearing ten or more 

 •ms, just in the same way as the name Echinus was originally used for a variety of regular Urchins, which have now 

 ceived different generic names. The difference between the tiny ten-armed Antedon abyssicola inhabiting depths of 

 miles and upwards, and the littoral Antedon elegans, Antedon multiradiata, or Antedon regalis, is no doubt very 

 nsiderable at first sight ; but there are so many intermediate links between the simple and the complex forms, that 

 > hard and fast generic lines can be drawn.— (P. H. Carpenter, Zool. Chall. Exp., part 60, p. 31.) 



' This little species [Antedon abyssicola] is one of very considerable interest, apart altogether from the peculiarities 



