Note on the existence of gigantic sea-anemones in the China Sea : containing within them quasi-parasitic fish / by C. Collingwood.

  • Cuthbert Collingwood
Date:
1868
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Note on the existence of gigantic sea-anemones in the China Sea : containing within them quasi-parasitic fish / by C. Collingwood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    \_Fro7n the Annals and Magazine of Natural History for January 1868.] =2^ NOTE ON THE EXISTENCE OF GIGANTIC SEA-ANEMONES IN THE CHINA SEA, CONTAINING WITHIN THEM QUASI-PARASITIC FISH. By Dr. C. COLLINGWOOD, F.L.S. The most remarkable circumstance which I met with when wading upon a submerged reef in the China Sea was the dis- covery of some Actiniae of enormous size, and of habits no less novel than striking. I observed in a shallow spot a beautiful large convoluted mass, of a deep blue colour, which, situated as it was in the midst of magnificent corals of every colour of the rainbow, I supposed also to be a coral; but its singular aspect induced me to feel it, when the peculiar tenacious touch of a sea-anemone made me rapidly withdraw my hand, to which adhered some shreds of its blue tentacles. I then per- ceived that it was an immense Actinia, which when expanded measured fully 2 feet in diameter. The tentacles were small, simple, and very numerous, of a deep blue colour ; and the margin of the tentacular ridge was broad and rounded, and folded in thick convolutions concealing the entrance to the digestive cavity. While I was standing breast-high in the water, admiring this splendid specimen, I noticed a very beautiful little fish, which hovered in the water close by, and nearly over, the Anemone. The little fish was 6 inches long, the head bright orange, and the body vertically banded with broad rings of opaque white and orange alternately, three bands of each. As the fish remained stationary, and did not appear to be alarmed at my movements, I made ineffectual attempts to catch him; he always eluded my efforts, not darting away, however, as I expected he would, but always returning to the same spot. Wandering about in search of shells and animals, I returned from time to time to the great Anemone, and each time I found the fish there, in spite of all my disturbance of it. This singular persistence of the fish in keeping to the same