Page:Scientific results HMS Challenger vol 18 part 2.djvu/707

Rh or meridional rows and concentric horizontal verticils. The branches are irregularly curved, twice to four times as long as the distal end of the tube, armed with two opposite rows of lateral denticles, and at the distal end with a spathilla of six radial teeth.

Dimensions.—Length of the tubes 1.5 to 1.8, breadth 0.02 to 0.04; branches 0.1 to 0.15 long.

Habitat.—North Pacific, Stations 253 and 254, depth 3025 to 3125 fathoms.

26. Aulographis candelabrum, n. sp. (Pl. 103, fig. 1).

Radial tubes club-shaped, straight, thickened towards the distal end and constricted beyond the ovate, inflated, terminal knob. This knob is similar to a candelabrum and bears a corona of six to nine strongly curved terminal branches, which are eight to ten times as long as the tube is broad, armed with scattered lateral denticles, and with a spathilla of five to seven radial teeth.

Dimensions.—Length of the tubes 1.6 to 2.4, breadth 0.03 to 0.05; branches 0.2 to 0.3 long.

Habitat.—South-east Pacific (off Juan Fernandez), Station 300, depth 1375 fathoms.

Definition.— with a veil of tangential needles, and with radial tubes, which bear no lateral branches, but at the distal end a verticil of ramified or forked terminal branches.

The genus Auloceros differs from the preceding closely allied Aulographis, its ancestral form, in the ramification of the verticillate terminal branches. They are either simply forked or again ramified, and their distal ends are either simply pointed or armed with a terminal spathilla, or a little crown of recurved teeth. Some forms of this genus belong to the most elegant and graceful, as the Auloceros elegans figured, which I observed living in the Indian Ocean.

Definition.—Distal ends of the terminal branches pointed, smooth, without spathilla (or corona of radiate denticles).

1. Auloceros furcosus, n. sp. (Pl. 102, figs. 2-6).

Radial tubes slender, spindle-shaped or nearly cylindrical, more or less tapering towards the two ends. Terminal branches slender, curved, twice to four times as long as the tube is broad, very variable in number (usually two or three, rarely four, five, or six; compare figs. 2-6), once or twice forked; the secondary branches are short, irregular, and pointed. No terminal spathillæ.