Classification of the New Zealand Material

The colonies from Auckland and Wellington Harbours are erect and have no hydrophore or supporting structure of any kind at the base of the polyps. This eliminates them from many of the species described by Vervoort (1962), but leaves them as possible members of the following genera and species.

(1)	Solanderia gracilis Duchassaing and Michelin, 1846 (distribution West Indies).
(2)	Solanderia leuckarti Marshall, 1892 (described as a "doubtful" species by Vervoort, distribution unknown, but probably the Pacific).
(3)	Chitina ericopsis Carter, 1873 (a "doubtful" genus according to Vervoort, distribution New Zealand).
(4)	Solanderia misakinensis (Inaba, 1892), found in Japanese waters.

The colony growth form of the Auckland specimens used in this study is identical with that of S. gracilis except that the polyps on the branch tips are borne in all planes, and not only in the plane of flattening of the colony. The skeleton of S. gracilis is purple coloured, but the skeletons of the Auckland and Wellington specimens preserved in formalin are a uniform light brown.

The present material lacks tubercles of fused fibres on fine branches such as are described for S. leuckarti.

A portion of a branch of Chitina ericopsis (dried material only) cannot be distinguished in structure from that seen in a branch of equivalent dimensions of the present material. Chitina may therefore be inseparable from Solanderia, as Vervoort suggests (1962, p. 537). However as no description of soft parts of Chitina exists, it is difficult to see how any living or well-preserved specimen can ever be assigned to this genus.

S. misakinensis, as described by Vervoort (1962) possesses a much closer, denser form of branching than the Auckland specimens, but is identical to the largest (30 cm high) Wellington Harbour colony. Growing from the same tangled root-like base of the Wellington material a little to the side of the large colony is a colony 6 cm high, and this smaller one has the same growth pattern as the Auckland Harbour specimens. There is little doubt that the Auckland and Wellington specimens are members of the species S. misakinensis, and that the Auckland material is at an earlier stage of development than that which is figured and described by Vervoort.

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In the course of identifying the present material two specimens labelled as Solanderia fusca (Gray, 1868) were studied. One was collected in Sydney, Australia, (Australian Museum, No. Y.509) and the other from Queensland, collected by Dr. Pamela Pennycuik. The specimen from Sydney is undoubtedly S. fusca and agrees in every detail of skeletal structure with the specimen Ceratella fusca Gray, 1868 described by Spencer (1891). The specimen from Queensland, however, is certainly not S. fusca. The skeleton is very similar to that of Solanderia secunda (Inaba, 1892) with a flattened, thorn shaped projection either side of the polyp base and no hydrophore as in S. fusca. The colour of the Queensland specimen is dark brown as in S. secunda, and the method of branching is similar. As the distribution of S. secunda is tropical and subtropical regions of the Pacific Ocean (Vervoort, 1962) it seems very likely that the Queensland specimen is in fact S. secunda.