the Texas coast (one unpublished record in the U. S. National Museum) needs to be verified.

In the deeper waters (10-500 fathoms) of the southeastern Gulf, practically all of the alcyonarians are West Indian species belonging to genera of wide distribution. The Gorgonellidae, Chrysogorgiidae, Primnoidae, and Muriceidae replace in predominance the plexaurids and gorgoniids of very shallow water. Most of the species are widespread throughout the Antilles and probably also in the Caribbean. From the occurrence of such characteristic forms as Bebryce grandis and Scleracis guadalupensis in the extreme northern Gulf, it is probably safe to assume that a good proportion of the West Indian species are present throughout the Gulf of Mexico wherever bottom conditions permit. There is no evidence as to the composition of the alcyonarian fauna of this bathymetric range in the western part of the Gulf, and intensive collecting should be done in that region to clarify the distribution patterns of the West Indian species as they enter the Gulf of Mexico.

The limited deep-sea dredging which has been done in the Gulf of Mexico has resulted in very few alcyonarian records. The isidid gorgonian, Acanella eburnea, which was taken in depths ranging from less than 200 to above 950 fathoms in the Gulf of Mexico, is also known from the northwestern Atlantic, the West Indies and Caribbean, the coast of Brazil, and the eastern Atlantic, always at considerable depths. Beyond the 1,000-fathom contour, three pennatulid species have been dredged: Umbellula güntheri, U. lindahlii, and Funiculina quadrangularis, all of which also occur at extreme depths in the northern and eastern Atlantic.

There seems to be no truly endemic element in the alcyonarian fauna of the Gulf of Mexico. The strictly shallow-water forms of the northern half are also the predominant species along the Carolina-Georgia coast, while those of the southern part are typically West Indian. The species of moderate depths throughout the Gulf are West Indian, and a northern element does not appear to be present. Finally, the characteristically deep-sea forms thus far known from the Gulf are of wide distribution at similar depths throughout the Atlantic and are possibly even cosmopolitan.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BAYER, FREDERICK M. 1949. Chalcogorgiinae, a new subfamily of Chrysogorgiidae (Coelenterata: Alcyonaria), and a description of Chalcogorgia pellucida, new genus and new species, from the Straits of Florida. Jour. Washington Acad. Sci. 39 (7): 237-240, 1 fig.

1952. New western Atlantic records of octocorals (Coelenterata: Anthozoa), with descriptions of three new species. Jour. Washington Acad. Sci. 42 (6): BIELSCHOWSKY, EVA.

1929. Die Gorgonarien Westindiens. Kap. 6: Die Familie Gorgoniidae. Zool. Jahrb. Supp. 16 (1): 63-234, figs. 1-40, pls. 2-5.

CARY, LEWIS R.

1916. Die Gorgonarien Westindiens. Kap. 1, Die Scleraxonier; Kap. 2, Über den Venusfächer; Kap. 3, Die Gattung Xiphigorgia H. M. Edw. Zool. Jahrb. Supp. 11 (4): 444-503, 26 figs., pl. 23. 1919. Gorgonaria. Wissenscahftliche Ergebnisse der deutschen Tiefsee-Exped. auf dem Dampfer Valdivia 1898-99, 13 (2): 1–946, 318 figs., pls. 30-89. 1924. Gorgonaria. Das Tierreich 47: xxviii+478, 209 figs. Berlin u. Leipzig.

KUNZE, G.

1916. Die Gorgonarien Westindiens. Kap. 4.-Die Gattung Eunicea Lamouroux; Kap. 5.-Die Gattung Plexaurella. Zool. Jahrb. Supp. 11 (4): 505-586, 55 figs., pls. 24-28.

MOSER, JOHANNES.

1921. Ergebnisse einer Revision der Gattung Plexaura Lamouroux. Zool. Anzeiger 53 (5/6): 110–118. POURTALES, L. F., de

1863-1869. Contributions to the fauna of the Gulf Stream at great depths (2d series). Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard College 1 (6): 103–120, 1867; 1 (7): 121-142, 1868.

RIESS, MARGOT.

1929. Die Gorgonarien Westindiens. Kap. 8.-Die Familie Muriceidae. Zool. Jahrb. Supp. 16 (2): 377-420, 4 figs., pl. 8.

STIASNY, GUSTAV.

Siboga-Exped.

1935. Die Gorgonacea der Siboga-Expedition. Supplement 1, Revision der Plexauridae. Monog. 13b': vi+106, 27 figs., pls. 1-7. 1937. Die Gorgonacea der Siboga-Expedition. Supplement 2, Revision der Scleraxonia mit Ausschluss der Melitodidae und Coralliidae. Siboga-Exped. Monog.

13b8: vi+138, 38 figs., pls. 1-8. 1941a. Studien über Alcyonaria und Gorgonaria, II. Zool. Anzeiger 134(3/4): 53-71, 8 figs. 1941b. Studien über Alcyonaria und Gorgonaria, III. Zool. Anzeiger 134(11/12): 254-268, 11 figs. 1941c. Studien über Alcyonaria und Gorgonaria, IV. Zool. Anzeiger 135(1/2): 13-25, 10 figs. 1941d. Gorgonaria von Venezuela (Inseln Blanquilla und Los Frailes). Arch. Néerl. de Zool. 6 (1): 101116, figs. 1-4, pls. 1-2.

THOMSON, J. ARTHUR.

1927. Alcyonaires provenant des campagnes scientifiques du Prince Albert Ier de Monaco. Rés. Camp. Scient. Albert de Monaco 73: 1-77, pls. 1-6.

TOEPLITZ, CHARLOTTE M.

1929. Die Gorgonarien Westindiens. Kap. 7.-Die Familie Gorgonellidae, zugleich eine Revision. Zool. Jahrb. Supp. 16 (2): 235-376, 26 figs., pls. 6-7. VERRILL, ADDISON EMERY.

1864. List of the polyps and corals sent by the Museum of Comparative Zoology to other institutions in exchange, with annotations. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., Harvard College 1 (3): 29–60.

1869. Critical remarks on the halcyonoid polyps with descriptions of new species in the museum of Yale College, No. 4. Am. Jour. Sci. (2) 48: 419–429. 1883. Report on the Anthozoa, and on some additional species dredged by the Blake in 1877-79, and by the U. S. Fish Commission steamer Fish Hawk in 1880-82. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., Harvard College 11 (1): 1-72, pls. 1-8.

1904-1907. The Bermuda Islands. Part 5.-Characteristic life of the Bermuda coral reefs. Trans. Connecticut Acad. Sci. 12: 160-304, 28 pls.; index and errata, pp. 311-316.

Of all the animals living in the sea the anemones are at the same time among the most beautiful and most difficult to study. A sound basis for the study of anemones is a detailed series of notes on the living animals including color sketches or photographs, measurements, and descriptions of the nematocysts, and a set of well-prepared slides

of various parts of each species. Each marine laboratory or station should compile a set of color photographs, camera lucida drawings of the nematocysts (under oil immersion) making up the cnidom, and serial sections for each species in its fauna. A collection of huddled lumps of coelenterate flesh is almost useless to all but the

most thorough-going specialist in this group, and in the absence of satisfactory material our knowledge of Gulf coast actinians will remain in its present fragmentary state.

NOTES ON COMMON SPECIES Lubrunia danae (Duchassaing and Michelotti).

or

This anemone is conspicuous for the large, branched outgrowths ("pseudotentacles" "fronds") at the top of the column just below the tentacles. The animal is brownish and lives in hollows in coral rock. It is common at Tortugas and was described from there by Hargitt (1911) as Cradactis variabilis. McClendon (1911), in a paper on habits of several invertebrates, provides a color plate.

Anemonia sargassensis Hargitt.

A well characterized anemone both in habit and appearance. Originally described from sargassum drifting into Woods Hole, it is found on that plant as it drifts ashore along the Texas coast and is recorded from Beaufort by Field (1949). It is a small, rather squat, velvet-brown species. The tentacles may be tinted green and are occasionally branched (fig. 60).

Bunodosoma cavernata (Bosc).

The common jetty form of the Texas coast, especially at Port Aransas and Port Isabel. Cary (1906) found it common on the Cameron jetties. It was originally described from the Carolina coast and is a characteristic member of the Beaufort fauna. It is a muddy to dull brown colored anemone with pearl gray vesicles on the column, with reddish to brownish or bluish tentacles, but usually with a red stripe on the back of the larger tentacles (fig. 60). Some specimens are entirely cherry red. The West Indian B. granulifera is considered to be a synonym of this species (Carlgren 1952). Anthopleura krebsi (Duchassaing and Michelotti).

Previously known from St. Thomas and Jamaica, a colony of small individuals occurs on the Port Isabel jetties. The column and tentacles are white, with rows of bright red verrucae which are larger and more regular toward the top of the column (fig. 60).

IM. D. Burkenroad contends (in litteris) that there is another common species on Gulf Sargassum, smaller than Anemonia, and reproducing commonly by longitudinal fission. Carlgren (in litteris) thinks it possible that this may be a Bundeopsis. This problem cannot be clarified until the anemones of the Atlantic Sargassum are critically studied.

Bunodactis texaensis Carlgren and Hedgpeth.

A conspicuous gray anemone, superficially resembling Bunodosoma cavernata, but with verrucae instead of vesicles on the column and a pattern of darker gray or greenish to light brown splotches on the disc (see color plate, Calgren and Hedgpeth). It occurs on the jetties at Galveston and offshore near Port Aransas.

Minyas olivacea (LeSueur.)

A pelagic antillean species which occasionally drifts ashore on the coasts of Texas and Louisiana, sometimes in considerable numbers. The animal is an olive brown color, with the tentacles apparently reduced to knoblike processes. The animal remains at the surface by means of a float in the pedal disc. According to observations of M. D. Burkenroad, Minyas will shed its float in an aquarium, but does not produce a new one. under these conditions. It may be that the mature Minyas (as yet unknown) is a sessile form. Condylactis gigantea (Weinland).

The "passion flower" anemone is common at Tortugas, the Bahamas, Miami, and various places in the West Indies. The color of the column varies from bright scarlet to brownish, the tentacles are brownish or paler than the column and usually tipped with scarlet.

Stoichactis helianthus (Ellis).

The "sun flower" anemone is a characteristic West Indian species common in the Bahamas and at Tortugas. It is easily identified by the broad, incompletely retractile disc with its large number of short, stubby tentacles. The disc is greenish or with green patches, and the peristome is usually bright yellow. The tentacles are greenish to yellow.

Paranthus rapiformis (LeSueur).

A characteristic member of the shallow water bottom assemblage along the Texas coast. Cary found it washed ashore along the Cameron beach. It is found off Beaufort and along the coast northward to New Haven. Although this species has a moderately well developed basal disc, it is a burrowing form. The column is whitish, the disc green with faint salmon markings (fig. 60). Specimens brought on deck in a trawl or dredge contract to a spherical shape resembling peeled onions. Calliactis tricolor (LeSueur).

Common on the shells of the gastropod Rehderia off the southern Atlantic coast and sometimes