distal extremity of its fourth and fifth joints five protuberances,
of which the two outerm ost are small, and the three inner longer, strong
and suhacute ; near the middle of the ventral sni’face of the fouith
joint is a small process (as in P. Jltuninense), aud a series ot minute
siiinules or protul)crances along the upper margin of the fifth jo in t;
the joints also, except perhaps the eighth, aro marked with longitudinal
impressed lines ; the eighth has a series of spinules on its
inferior surface ; besides the terminal claw there are, as already
noted, two strong accessory claws. The first to third joints of the
legs are scantily clothed with very short hair ; the distal protuberances
of the fourth joint and the fifth joints are more thickly
clothed with longer hair, and the sixth to eighth joints again with a
much finer, more scanty pubescence.
Three specimens are in the collection, obtained respectively at
Dundas Straits, 17 fms. (Xo. 161), Thursday Island, 4 -5 fms. (Xo.
165), and in Prince of Wales Channel, 7 fms. (Xo. 169). As iu
these specimens the thigh-joints aro not specially dilated and the
genital pores are small, I believe them to he males.
This species resembles Phoxichilidium insigne, Hoek {t. c. p. 82,
pi. xiv. figs. 5-7), from Bahia, iu the curious distal protuberances of
the fourth and fifth joints of the legs, hut these are absent from
the second and third joints in P. hoelcii, and our species differs in
m a n y other most important points, as {e.g.) in the closely approximated
leg-hearing processes of the body, the terminalljj-placed second
joints of the mandibles, and the more robust body and appendages.
The first-mentioned of these characters will also separate
this species from P. Jiuminense, Kroyer (see Hock, t. c. p. 81,
pi. xiv. figs. 1-4), from which it is also distinguished by the
distal protuberances of the leg-joints &c. The existence of these
protuberances separates this species from those other species^ of
Phoxichilidium described by Dr. Hoek in which the leg-bearing
processes are more or less approximated, and from the two Austral
species described by White* as Nyrnphon phasma and A*. johnstonia-
num, which Dr. Hoek has shown belong to Phoxichilidium. The
“ points” mentioned by AYhite as occurring at the end of the oints
in N. johnstonianum are, I may add, only short stiff setæ.
* Proc. Zool. Soc. XV. p. 125 (1847).
A L C Y O N A HI A.
BY
STUART 0 . RIDLEY.
C o n s id e r a b l e light has already been thrown from four sources upon
the zoology of the Alcyonaria of the northern and eastern parts of
Australia—the districts which receive illustration from the present
fine collection. I refer to the collection made b j Air. E. AI. Rayner
in the ‘ Herald,’ th at made by Air. J. B. Jukes in the ‘ Ely, ’ in those
of the Antarctic Expedition under Sir James Ross and the present
Sir J. Hooker, and that by the German circumnavigatory expedition
of the ‘ Gazelle.’ In the case of the three British expeditions,
the Alcyonaria of chief interest were described by Dr. J. E. Gray
in the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London ’*, in the
‘Annals and Alagaziiie of Natural Histo ry ’t , aud iu his ‘Catalogue
of the Lithophytes or Stony Corals in the collection of the British
Aluseum’ (London, 8vo, 1870). The specimens collected by the
‘ Gazelle ’ were described by Prof. T. Studer in the ‘ Alonatshericht
der Akademie der AVissenschaften zii B e rlin ’ *. Studer’s is the
largest single contribution to the subject, and describes twenty-four
species from Australia, but only from western and north-western
localities. The information given by the older writers Lamarck.
Lamonronx, Alilne-Edwards and Haime is almost all open to the
great objection of indefiniteness as to locality ; the single species
definitely described by AIAI. Quoy and Gaimard as collected by tho
‘ Astrolabe ’ in Australia is from the south.
The present collection contains thirty-eight species, and may be
regarded as giving a good general insight into the character of the
Alcyonarian fauna of the shallow waters of the north-east coast of
Australia (coast of Queensland, up to and including Torres Straits),
and as adding in a most important manner to our knowledge of the
same fauna in the north-western part of this continent. I have
inserted notes on specimens already in the collection where the
localities were known with certainty; in particular a series recently
obtained by exchange from the Australian Aluseum, Sydney, and
collected near Port Jackson and on the Queensland coast, has been
of service.
Distribution.—The number of localities investigated, and the
* 1862, pp. 27, 31, 34 ; 1872, p. 744.
t Ser. 3, vol. v. p. 20; ser. 4, vol. ii. p. 441, iii. p. 21.
} 1878, p. 633.
W u i -I
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