Definition.—Coccodiscida with two opposite chambered arms on the margin of the circular disk, connected by a spongy patagium.
The genus Amphiactura differs from the foregoing Diplactura in the development of a patagium between the arms, and therefore bears the same relation to it as Amphymenium in the Porodiscida does to Amphibrachium, or Spongobrachium in the Spongodiscida does to Spongolene. In this and in the following Discoidea provided with a patagium, this connecting web constantly exhibits a different texture of its framework, which is sometimes more regularly chambered, at other times more irregularly spongy.
1. Amphiactura amphibrachia, n. sp. (Pl. [38], figs. 3, 4).
Phacoid shell three times as broad as the medullary shell, with eight pores on its radius. Arms nearly equilateral triangular, twice as long as the diameter of the phacoid shell, at the truncated distal end as broad as the latter, at the base only one-third as broad. Patagium a circular lenticular disk, enveloping only the basal third of the arms, with three to four concentric circular rings, divided into chambers by about forty radial beams, which are prolonged beyond the margin of the patagium into radial spines. The vertical section (fig. 4) shows that the chambers of each arm (eleven to twelve transverse rows in the radius) are disposed in two layers.
Dimensions.—Diameter of the phacoid shell 0.09, of the medullary shell 0.03; length of the arms 0.18, basal breadth 0.03, distal breadth 0.09.
Habitat.—Pacific, central area, Station 263, depth 2650 fathoms.
Genus 206. Trigonactura,[[245]] Haeckel, 1881, Prodromus, p. 459.
Definition.—Coccodiscida with three chambered arms on the margin of the circular or triangular disk, without a connecting patagium.
The genus Trigonactura exhibits three radial arms, which in all known species are separated by three equal angles. The terminal points of the arm-axes are the corners of an equilateral triangle. It corresponds therefore to Dictyastrum among the Porodiscida.