Abstract
Two years ago. Miss Edith Pratt published in vol. v. of Willey's “Zoological Results” a paper on the anatomy of Neohelia porcellana. In this paper attention was directed to a horny membrane lining the hollow tube which forms the axis of the colony, and the suggestion was made that this horny membrane is secreted by the Neohelia itself. The single specimen which Miss Pratt had to investigate was, unfortunately, a small one, and in the criticisms which appeared some doubts were expressed as to whether this horny membrane was not secreted by some tubicolous worm which formerly inhabited the hollow tube of the corallum, and not by the Neohelia itself. I have recently had the opportunity of examining specimens of two species of the closely related genus Amphihelia, one (A. oculata) from a depth of 240 fathoms off the coast of Florida, the other (A. ramea) obtained by H.M.S. Porcupine in the Faeroe Channel, 363 fathoms. In both of them there is a horny membrane similar in character and position to that described for Neohelia. Now it is difficult to believe that a worm forming the same kind of tube, with the same habit of mysteriously disappearing when the corals are preserved, occurs in such widely separated districts as Florida, deep water. New Britain, shallow water, and the Faeroe Channel, deep water. The only reasonable conclusion is that these madrepores do actually secrete this horny membrane themselves.
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HICKSON, S. The Horny Membrane of Neohelia porcellana . Nature 67, 344 (1903). https://doi.org/10.1038/067344a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/067344a0
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