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Show 184 MESSRS. L. MURBACn AND 0. SnEARER O N [June 16, the tentacles there is a little nodule, the glandular sucker. There appears to be a otocyst between each pair of tentacles. The stomach appears quadrate, but is attached only along the lines of the radial canals. The proboscis is of moderate length, bringing the fringed manubrium near the velum. The four radial canals pass to the highest point in the bell and then dip under the conical depression above mentioned. The gonads are a very closely folded band hanging from the radial canals, their free border being longer than the attached border ; they are thrown into folds (sinusoidally) backwards and forwards across the radial canals, like a ruffle or frill *. Colour.-Gonads deep red, the radial canals as deep brownish lines ; bell yellowish green. Habitat.-Gulf of Georgia, collected by Agassiz ; Victoria Harbour, collected by Shearer ; Matsmets Bay and Puget Sound, collected by Kincaid. Discussion.-This is the first notice of this Medusa since its discovery by A. Agassiz in the waters of Puget Sound some forty-three years ago. They were found swimming vigorously in groups of threes and fours in the outer part of Victoria Harbour at McCauley's Point, July 14, 1900. It is hard to convey an idea of the remarkable beauty of this animal as it swims with its dark crimson gonads and dense mass of tentacles thrashing the water at every contraction of the bell. Agassiz (2) also states that he never found them swimming singly, but always in numbers. H e says : -" It at once attracted m y attention by its peculiar mode of moving. I could see these jelly-fishes, with the tentacles spread out to the fullest extent, sinking slowly to the bottom, the disk turned downward ; the moment a blade of kelp touches the disk, they stop, bend their tentacles like knees, and remain attached to the sea-weed by means of their lasso-cells, which are arranged in rings scattered thickly over the surface of the tentacles; after remaining attached in this way a moment, with their tentacles extended and mouth turned upwards, they suddenly let go their hold, turn upside down, contract their tentacles to a third of their former length, and begin their upward movement by means of short, rapid jerks, given by the sudden expanding and contracting of the tentacles as they are violently thrown out from the cavity covered by the veil. They keep up this rapid motion until they reach the surface of the water; at the instant the upper part of the disk touches the top of the water, the Medusa inverts itself, * Haeckel (18) understood this condition to represent lateral diverticula in the radial canals something like those of Polyorchis. For this reason he has placed it near Polyorchis under the Cannotida?, whereas its true relationship seems to be under the Trachomedusse, as we have arranged it above, and not under the Leptomedusag, although it has undoubted characters of this class. It would seem to be similar to Medusas, like Laodice, which do not find a natural place under any of Haeckel's four orders. For Brooks (7) has shown that Laodice possesses the true endodennal sense-clubs of the Trachylmoe,despite the many features that rank it with the Leptomedusse under the Leptolitue. |
