312 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Family ISOPORIDtE, nom. nov. 
This name is proposed to take the place of Madreporidx. 
Genus ISOPORA Studer, 1878. 
1758. Millepora (pars), Linnseus, Syst. Nat., ed. x, p. 790. 
1766. Madnporae anemalx (pars), Pallas, Elench. Zooph., p. 279. 
1767. Madrepora (pars), Linneeus, Syst. Nat., ed. xn, p. 1272. 
Also, in part, of Esper, Pflanzenthiere; Ellis & Solander, Natural History of Zoophytes; and Lamarck, Systeme des 
Animaux sans Vertebres. 
1816. Madrepora, Lamarck, Hist. Nat. Anim. s. Vert., t. II, p. 277. 
1834. Heteropora, Ehrenberg, Cor. Roth. Meer., Abhandl. IC’gl. Akad. VViss. Berlin for 1832, p. 323 (non de Blainville). 
1878. Isopora (as subgenus), Studer, Monatsber. Akad. Wiss. Berlin 1878, p. 535. 
1893. Eumadrepora , Odontocyathus , Polystachys, Lepidocyathus, Isopora, Tylopora, Conocyathus, Rliabdocyathus (as subgenera) 
Brook, Cat. Genus Madrepora, p. 22. 
Brook has pointed out (op. cit., p. 22) that none of the species at present called Madrepora were 
included in the Linnsean Madrepora. The Madrepora muricata was placed in Millepora. What we now 
call Madrepora was subsequently inserted in the original Linntean genus, and later the inserted part 
was made the type of Madrepora, when it was subdivided. This is against all rules for nomenclature. 
The name Madrepora can not be employed as by Dana, Milne-Edwards & Haime, and later authors. 
Heteropora Ehrenberg can not be used, because de Blainville had previously applied the name to a 
genus of Bryozoa. The first available name known to me is Isopora Studer, applied in a subgeneric 
sense. I propose here to elevate it to generic rank. Studer included two species in it- — Madrepora 
labrosa and Madrepora securis, both of Dana — designating neither one as a type. 
The type species of Madrepora, must be selected from the original list of species of Linnaeus, 
but I have not studied the generic history of all the species to determine the one to which the name 
Madrepora should be attached. 
Isopora muricata (Linnaeus). Pis. xxi-xxvii. 
1758. Millepora muricata (pars), Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. x, p. 792. 
1767. Madrepora muricata (pars), Linnreus, Syst. Nat., ed. xn, p. 1279. 
1893. Madrepora muricata (with synonymy), Brook, Cat. Gen. Madrepora, pp. 23-30. 
1895. Madrepora muricata , Gregory, Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. London, vol. LI, pp. 281-282. 
After having examined very extensive suites of specimens of this species, and having studied the 
material in the British Museum and most of Duchassaing & Michelotti’s types in Turin, I have reached 
the same conclusion as Brook, subsequently reiterated by Gregory, i. e., at present we know only one 
species of Madrepora from the West Indies, and this may conveniently be divided into three formas or 
varieties, viz, muricata s. s. (cerdcornis, "Lara.), prolifer a, and pahnata. 
I propose here to supplement what Brook has said on the early history of the nomenclature of 
this species. 
The second reference given by Linnaeus in his original synonymy of Millepora muricata 1 is “Sloan 
jam. i, p. 51, t. 18, f. 3, corallium album porosum maximum muricatum.” The full title of the work 
referred to is “A voyage to the Islands of Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica, 
with the natural history of the herbs and trees, four-footed beasts, fishes, birds, insects, reptiles, etc., 
of the last of these islands; to which is prefixed an introduction wherein is an account of the inhab- 
itants, air, water, diseases, trade, etc., of that place, with some relations concerning the neighboring 
continent, and islands of America. Illustrated with the figures of the things described, which have 
not been heretofore engraved; in large copper plates as big as the life. By Hans Sloane, M. D., in two 
volumes. London, 1709.” This old book possesses a considerable number of fairly good figures of 
Jamaican corals. The figure to which Linnaeus makes reference, pi. 18, fig. 3, is the typical Madrepora 
cervicornis of Lamarck. Pallas 2 divides the species into three varieties: (a) Varietas ramosa, under 
which reference is made to Browne’s Jamaica, Sloane’ s Catalogus Plantarum Insulae Jamaicse (London, 
1891), and Sloane’ s Natural History of Jamaica. He also refers to Seba’s Thesaurus. I do not know 
i Syst. Nat., ed. x, 1756, p. 792. 
2 Elench. Zooph., 1766, pp. 327-331. 
