Octocorallia from new Caledonia

Introduction During her stay in New Caledonia in 1968 Dr. Maya Wijsman-Best, University of Amsterdam, collected some alcyonaceans, which have been kindly entrusted to me for study. Two years later two American biologists collected a large number of these corals at the same locality: the neighbourhood of Nouméa, the capital of New Caledonia. These investigators, Dr. Arthur G. Humes, Boston University, Massachusetts, U.S.A., and Mr. Robert C. Halverson, University of California, Santa Barbara, U.S.A., collected the material in order to study the copepods associated with the corals, and I thank them for placing the colonies at my disposal. In the two collections one or more colonies of the following species are present. List of species Order Alcyonacea Lamouroux, 1816. Family Alcyoniidae Lamouroux, 1812. — Alcyonium legitimum Tixier-Durivault, 1970; Alcyonium simplex Thomson & Dean, 1931; Cladiella humesi nov. spec.; Cladiella pachyclados (Klunzinger, 1877); Cladiella rotundata Tixier-Durivault, 1970; Cladiella similis (Tixier-Durivault, 1944); Cladiella sphaerophora (Ehrenberg, 1834); Lobophytum caledonense Tixier-Durivault, 1956; Lobophytum crassum Von Marenzeller, 1886; Lobophytum crebriplicatum Von Marenzeller, 1886; Lobophytum depressum Tixier-Durivault, 1966; Lobophytum pauciflorum (Ehrenberg, 1834); Lobophytum schoedei Moser, 1919; Sarcophyton acutangulum (Von Marenzeller, 1886); Sarcophyton ehrenbergi Von Marenzeller, 1886; Sarcophyton elegans Moser, 1919; Sarcophyton glaucum (Quoy & Gaimard, 1833); Sarcophyton implanum nov. spec.; Sarcophyton manifestum Tixier-