Habitat.—Indian Ocean, Zanzibar, Pullen, depth 2200 fathoms.
2. Cubotholonium ellipsoides, n. sp. (Pl. [10], fig. 15).
Tholothauma ellipsoides, Haeckel, 1883, MS.
Outer cortical shell (or veil) ellipsoidal, with very thin irregular network and thorny surface. Inner cortical shell double, with six double, flatly vaulted cupolas, surrounding the six sides of the Larnacilla-shaped central chamber; the double domes of each shell are in opposite pairs somewhat larger than the alternating pairs. Pores subregular, circular, about the same breadth as the bars; eight to twelve in the basal semicircle of one cupola. Central chamber with ellipsoidal medullary shell. Radial spines short, very numerous.
Dimensions.—Major axis of the outer cortical shell 0.28, minor 0.24; major axis of the inner cortical shell 0.16, minor axis 0.14; pores and bars 0.006; medullary shell 0.03.
Habitat.—Pacific, central area, Station 271, depth 2425 fathoms.
Family XXVIII. Zonarida, n. fam. (Pl. [50], figs. 9-12).
Definition.—Larcoidea with regular, completely latticed cortical shell, distinguished by two to four or more annular constrictions, which lie (all or partly) in the dimensive planes (sagittal, transverse, or lateral), and by which four to eight or more vaulted cupolas or dome-like chambers become separated. In the centre of this chambered cortical shell lies constantly a trizonal or Larnacilla-shaped medullary shell.
The family Zonarida comprises a small number of peculiar Larcoidea, resembling the Tholonida in the composition of the polythalamous cortical shell by a number of cupolas or dome-shaped protuberances. But the disposition and origin of these latter are quite different. Whilst in the Tholonida the axes of the domes are dimensive axes, and these are separated by annular constrictions lying in diagonal planes, in the Zonarida we find the contrary; the axes of the domes are here diagonal axes, and these are separated by annular constrictions lying in dimensive planes. However, this definition agrees absolutely only in the four-chambered Zonarium and in the eight-chambered Zonidium, whilst in the six chambered Zoniscus only four domes are disposed according to this law, two others, however, in the same manner as in the Tholonida. Therefore this genus is intermediate between both families.
The Cortical Shell of the Zonarida is in all cases completely latticed and of regular lentelliptical fundamental form, as in the nearly allied Larnacida and Tholonida. The three dimensive axes are constantly of different sizes, each with two equal poles; commonly (as in the human body) the principal or longitudinal axis is the longest, the sagittal (or dorso-ventral) axis the shortest; the transverse (or lateral) axis being intermediate between them. Of the three dimensive planes the lateral plane is the largest (determined by the principal and transverse axes); the smallest is the equatorial plane (crossed by the transverse and sagittal axes); the sagittal plane (determined by the sagittal and principal axes) being intermediate between them.