ALCYONARIA OF THE MERQTJI ARCHTPEL.YG-0. 



223 



Report on the Alcyoniid and Grorgoniid Alcyonaria of the 

 Mergni Archipelago, collected for the Trustees of the 

 Indian Museum, Calcutta, by Dr. John Anderson, F.R.S. 

 By Stuart O. Ridley, M.A., F.L.S., late Assistant in the 

 Zoological Department, British Museum. 



[Read 5th May, 1887.] 



(Plates XVII. & XYIII.) 



The collection of the above groups of Alcyonaria pat into my 

 hands for description by Dr. Anderson did not at first sight 

 exhibit indications of any great importance. Ou the contrary, 

 the dry specimens, which formed the great bulk of the collec- 

 tion, seemed, as regards their specific characters, as well as their 

 condition of preservation, of a very ordinary character ; and the 

 impression left on my mind was that of a small series of typical 

 and common Indian Ocean species, with possibly a few excep- 

 tions in the shape of new species. Among the spirit-specimens 

 I observed one form apparently of considerable interest. In 

 the latter case I was not altogether misled (see below, Lobophy- 

 tum madreporoides), it being a representative of a group which 

 has been distinguished generically from its allies since the time 

 when I last had a collection of Alcyonaria in my hands for 

 description. But in my judgment on the collection as a whole 

 I was entirely in the wrong ; for not only is the number of 

 new species greater than I had estimated, and this to the 

 extent of nearly 50 per cent, beyond my original opinion, but the 

 quality of the new forms, if the term is admissible, is remarkably 

 high. Among the Grorgoniidae one form occurs which may 

 perhaps ultimately prove an addition to the comparatively small 

 number of genera in that family so rich in species, besides two 

 other novelties (see Psammoqorgia ? plexauroides, infra). We 

 have a new addition to the small family Melithaeidse in the form 

 of a Ilopsella, characterized by a fine spiculation and by external 

 beauty. Finally the Spongodes seem to be all new and of a tvpe 

 hitherto but little known. Of the whole collection, more than 50 

 per cent, of the species are described here for the first time. 

 This large percentage of novelties is no doubt greatly due to the 

 comparatively slight amount of work which has been done among 

 the Alcyonaria of the Indian Ocean area, those of the Red Sea, 



LINN. JOURN. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. XXI. 19 



