REPORT ON THE FORAMIN IFER A . 
521 
previously recorded species. The earlier portion of the test is built on a bolder, larger 
plan than the rest, and the septal lines are thickened and raised. The later segments are 
relatively narrow and small, possibly starved by some sudden alteration of habitat, and 
the sutures, though still limbate, are not so prominent. 
The figured specimen was found in sand dredged off East Moneoeur Island, Bass 
Strait, depth 38 fathoms. 
F rondicularia incequalis, Costa (PI. LXYI. figs. 8-12). 
Frondicularia incequalis, Costa, 1855, Mem. Accad. Sci. Napoli, vol. iL p. 372, pi. iii. tig. 3. 
„ compressa, Id. Ibid. p. 372, pi. iii. fig. 2. 
„ whaingaroica, Staclie, 1864, Novara-Exped., geol. Tlieil, vol. i. p. 210, pi. xxii. 
fig. 43, a.lj. 
„ foliacea, Sch wager, 1866, Ibid. vol. ii. p. 236, pi. vi. fig 76. 
„ medelingensis, Karrer, 1877, Geol. K. F.-J. Wasserleitung, p. 380, pi. xvi. b., 
fig. 25. 
Flabellina foliacea, Brady, 1879, Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., vol. xix., N. S., p. 57, pi. viii. 
figs. 8-10. 
In the preliminary description of the recent specimens, this species was referred to 
the dimorphous genus Flabellina, though its close affinity to the Frondicularia 
foliacea of Schwager was at the same time fully stated. The position to which it was 
assigned was due to the irregularity of the earlier segments and their almost invariably 
inequilateral arrangement. Additional specimens have since been found, which tend to 
show that the species has an even greater range of variability than was at first recognised; 
and a further examination of the series has led to the conclusion that, though often 
unsymmetrical both in contour and disposition, the initial chambers are not in any strict 
sense Cristellarian, and hence that the form may properly be retained amongst the 
typical Frondicularia. A careful comparison of the figures of Frondicularia incequalis , 
Frondicularia compressa, Frondicularia whaingaroica, Frondicularia foliacea, Frondi- 
cularia medelingensis with each other and with the drawings from living specimens now 
furnished, brings an irresistible conviction that they all represent mere individual 
modifications of one polymorphic species. In the recent condition the shell is seldom 
ound entire, owing to its thin and fragile character, but even small fragments are easily 
dentified. 
Frondicularia incequalis has been found in sands dredged at six Challenger 
Stations, namely : — at two points near the Ki Islands, depth 129 fathoms and 580 fathoms 
respectively; off Raine Island, Torres Strait, 155 fathoms; off the west coast of New 
Zealand, 275 fathoms; off the Cape of Good Hope, 150 fathoms ; and off the coast of 
North America, south-east of New York, 1240 fathoms. 
The fossil specimens above referred to were obtained from deposits of Miocene and 
Pliocene age, in various parts of the world. 
