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PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XVIII, October 1964 
In external appearances (Figs. 1-4) Liagor- 
opsis resembles some species of Liagora (Ab- 
bott, 1945 ) , especially L. farinosa, but it is more 
robust and taller, and the branches are more 
irregular than those of any species of Liagora 
known to us. In its slightly calcareous nature it 
lies between the noncalcareous genera, such as 
Nemalion (which may have carbonate deposits 
in the base of the thallus), and generally strongly 
calcified genera, such as Trichogloea and Lia- 
gora. The fresh thalli resemble Trichogloea re- 
quienii and T. lubrica or the Trichogloeopsis 
species in texture, being soft and mucilaginous 
to gelatinous, though limy or slightly calcified. 
The dried thalli do not reveal this very soft 
nature but in herbarium specimens that have 
been dried without decalcification the liminess 
shows, usually in a reticulate pattern. 
Yamada distinguished the genus from Li- 
agora on the basis of the slight amount of calci- 
fication possessed by Liagoropsis , the paucity of 
involucral filaments, and the equality of the 
sometimes terminal carpogonial branches to 
vegetative branches. From his illustrations of 
the reproductive features it is clear at once that 
his genus is indeed different from Liagora. The 
extent of these differences was not known, how- 
ever, in reference to the other criteria used for 
distinguishing genera among the simpler Ne- 
malionales, and our present study was made 
largely to gather further information in this 
regard. 
Table 1 reveals the geographic distribution 
of this genus. In consideration of these locations 
it appears that one can expect to find this genus 
most often in the same areas where one finds 
the greatest degree of coral development, that 
is, in the warmer parts of the western Pacific 
and the western Atlantic. Yet it is not reported 
by Taylor (1942), Bernatowicz (1952 a,b ), 
Mg. 1, 2. Photographs of female carpogonial thalli believed to be representative and accepted as represent- 
ative of Liagoropsis Schrammi; these are, respectively, the type and an isotype of Helminth ocladia schrammi. Fig. 
1, The type specimen in the Thuret herbarium. Fig. 2, The istotype bearing the number 21962 in the Agardh 
herbarium. 
