Page:Scientific results HMS Challenger vol 18 part 2.djvu/714

1590 the distal branches are much smaller and simple. The distal end of each branch bears a spathilla with four to six short teeth.

Dimensions.—Length of the tubes 2.4 to 3.6, breadth 0.06 to 0.08.

Habitat.—South Atlantic, Station 332, depth 2200 fathoms.

5. Aulodendron indicum, n. sp. (Pl. 105, fig. 1).

Radial tubes cylindrical, irregularly curved, tapering gradually towards the two ends; smooth in the proximal half, irregularly branched in the distal half, with ten to twenty or more curved branches. The proximal branches are very large, one-sixth to one-fourth as long as the tube and irregularly ramified; the distal branches are much shorter, also ramified or simple. All the branches are more or less curved and bear a spinulate knob at the distal end.

Dimensions.—Length of the tubes 1.2 to 1.8, breadth 0.02 to 0.03; length of the branches 0.1 to 0.3.

Habitat.—Indian Ocean; Cocos Islands (Rabbe), surface. 



Definition.— with a simple or double, usually spherical lattice-shell, which is not bivalved and has no peculiar mouth or peristome. Central capsule placed in the centre of the shell.

Definition.— with a big spherical (sometimes polyhedral or ellipsoidal), very coarse shell, which is composed of thick bars containing an axial canal. Nodal points of the coarse network without astral septa. Meshes of moderate size, irregularly polygonal. Surface of the shell usually with radial spines and pyramidal elevations. No peculiar mouth in the shell. Central capsule tripylean, in the centre of the shell.

The family comprises those  which possess a simple spherical or polyhedral lattice-shell, composed of hollow, very thick, non-articulate rods, without a peculiar shell-mouth. They agree in the considerable size of the spherical lattice-shell and the absence of a peculiar shell-mouth with the other, but differ from them in the coarse and irregular shape of the massive network, which is composed of irregular polygonal meshes, separated by very thick concentrically stratified rods, containing a fine axial canal. The closely allied Sagosphærida differ from them in the delicate shape of the solid and very thin, filiform rods of the network, and its subregular