Asterospicularia laurae^ n. gen. et n. sp., 
the Type of a New Family of Alcyonarians with Stellate Spicules 
Huzio Utinomii 
Among those specimens of Alcyonaria ob- 
tained during my trip to Formosa in 1938, 
there is an interesting form which cannot be 
referred to any known genus of the group. 
It is represented only by a single specimen 
obtained on the coral reef at Daijubo, 
southernmost promontory of Formosa, on 
June 14, 1938. Superficially it shows a re- 
semblance to the genus Capnella in the mode 
of branching and in the appearance of polyps. 
Closer examination of the total specimen and 
sectioned preparations, however, has re- 
vealed that the coenenchyma as well as the 
polyp wall has a honeycombed texture filled 
with numerous stellate spicules and that the 
tentacles bear no trace of pinnules. Such 
characters are entirely unknown in the whole 
group of Alcyonaria, so I propose to institute 
for this form a new genus and even a new 
family. 
The following description is based on a 
perfect specimen which was taken as the type. 
EXTERNAL APPEARANCE 
The specimen (Fig. la) is in the form of a 
small colony of bushy growth and has a 
yelJowish white colour in alcohol. The base 
of the colony is broadened, flattened, and 
about 12 mm. in longest diameter. From the 
flattened upper surface of the short columnar 
stem arise nine large and small polyp-bearing 
lappets. Each of the lappets is mushroom- 
shaped; each consists of a polyp-bearing 
rounded capitulum and a short wide sterile 
^Seto Marine Biological Laboratory, Sirahama, 
Wakayama-Ken, Japan. Manuscript received Septem- 
ber 6, 1950. 
Stalk, the former being marked off sharply 
from the latter. In the largest lappet, the 
capitulum is about 6 mm. in diameter and 
5 mm. in height, and the stalk is about 8 mm. 
in diameter and 5 mm. in height. The total 
height of the colony is about 13-17 mm. 
No polyp dimorphism is found. The auto- 
zooids are closely set and rather large, being 
up to 1 mm. in diameter and 1.5 mm. in 
height. They are apparently capable of con- 
siderable contraction, and they look like 
papillae provided with a rather large central 
mouth surrounded by eight-lobed tentacles 
(Fig. lb). The whole surface of the trunk of 
the zooid is thickly covered with stellate 
spicules of sub-equal size which are continued 
onto the dorsal surface of the tentacles. The 
spicules are evenly scattered as in the Xeniidae 
and do not form any densely packed row or 
ridge along the intermesenteric area (Fig. Ic). 
The tentacles, in the contracted state, ap- 
pear oval in side view and measure about 
0.5 mm. long and 0.37 mm. wide (Fig. id). 
The pinnules are missing. Careful micro- 
scopic examination of serial sections of the 
tentacle reveals that from 8 to 10 opaque 
rounded bodies are imbedded slightly be- 
neath the oral surface of the tentacles (Fig. 
2c). These bodies are scattered here and there 
in the peripheral layer, but are closely united 
with one another in the deeper layer; they are 
continuous with the coelenteric cavity below 
the mouth. The interior is filled with numer- 
ous zooxanthellae and endoderm cells, and 
there is no connection between this region 
and the epidermis. Here the epidermis shows 
no sinus or indentation suggesting the pres- 
ence of pinnules. Thus I consider this body 
1190} 
