﻿Is Selaginopsis mirabilis a Native of British Seas 217 



XX. 7s the Ryclroicl, Selaginopsis mirabilis, a naiive of 

 British Seas? By James Eitchie, M.A., B.Sc, 

 iSTatural History Department, the Eoyal Scottish 

 Museum. 



(Read 21st December 1908; received 22nd February 1909.) 



During the present autumn I received from Mr John 

 Thompson, Hull, three colonies of a Hydroid which I have 

 identified as Selaginopsis mirahilis (Yerrill, 1872). The 

 specimens were obtained by Mr Thompson in March 1907, 

 during one of his searches among the zoological refuse in the 

 nets of trawl-boats lying at Hull. The vessel, in the net of 

 which the colonies were found, had taken its last few hauls 

 ofif Flamborough Head, the depth at that place being between 

 30 and 35 fathoms, and the bottom sandy with occasional 

 loose stones. The colonies were growing on a loose stone 

 covered with Serpula tubes, but they had to be torn from it 

 owing to the impossibility of abstracting the stone through 

 the mesh of the net. That the specimens were attached to 

 so solid a foundation, however, is of some importance, for it 

 excludes the chance of their having drifted to the locality 

 where they were found, and points clearly to their occurrence 

 in situ. When found the colonies were " in fine condition, 

 absolutely fresh," and, even dried, they are good examples 

 of the species, 11, 13*5, and 14*3 cm. high respectively, with 

 complete pinnae and many gonangia. 



For long S. miraMlis was regarded as a strictly Arctic 

 f species, but recent investigations show that its range extends 

 into temperate and even sub-tropical waters. Thus both 

 Nutting ^ and Torrey - have recorded it from Puget Sound, 

 on the Pacific Coast of America, while l^utting has found it 

 as far south as lat. 34= 45' 20" K, long. 75° 38' 10" W., that 



1 Xuttiug, C. C, " Hydroids from Alaska and Puget Sound," P/w. U. S. 

 |j Xat. Mus., xxi., 1899, p. 741, 



' -Torrey, H. B., '"The Hydroida of tbe Pacific Coast of Nortb America," 

 Univ. California Publications, ZooL, vol. i., 1902, p. 70. 



VOL. XVII. S 



