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Show 1879.] PROF. J. R. GREENE ON A RARE MEDUSA. 7 Head very wide, vertex impunctate, encarpse divided by a deep groove ; face deeply excavated immediately below the antennse, the anterior part of which is bounded at either side by a rounded lobe, vyhile the latter are covered at their outer edge with long bristlelike hairs; penultimate joint of the maxillary palpi greatly swollen and dilated, the apical joint being almost buried in it ; antennse as long as the body, the first joint very slender and curved, the second very short, third joint as long as the first, dilated at the apex and deeply excavated, fourth and fifth joints nearly equal in length and as long as the first, covered, as well as the rest of the joints, with fringes of short hairs. Thorax transverse, sides greatly diverging from the base to the middle, from there to the apex produced and rounded; surface foveolate, either side near the base impunctate. Scutellum flavous, broad. Elytra convex, transversely depressed below the base, scarcely visibly punctured, from base to middle black, thence to the apex fulvous. Tibiae and tarsi black. Only a single specimen, a male, is known to me. 4. Note on a Specimen of Charybdea haplonema. By Prof. J. R E A Y GREENE, B.A., M.D., F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. [Eeceived November 29, 1879.] Dr. Pye-Smith, now Assistant Physician to Guy's Hospital, found, some years since, in the Museum of that institution, a nameless Medusa of strange appearance, from an unknown locality. Noting its exceptional form, he made a drawing of it, and at the same time observed such of its structural peculiarities as could be studied with due regard to the conservation of the single sample at his disposal. He also took the trouble of bringing the specimen to the meeting of the British Association at Belfast; but no one there could tell him to what group of jelly-fishes it should be referred. Hearing of this failure, I applied during the spring of the present year to Dr. Pye- Smith, who most kindly gave me every opportunity of examining this remarkable Medusa at m y leisure. I soon found that I had not to deal with an undiscovered species, but with none other than the Tamoya haplonema of Fritz Muller. It belongs to Gegenbaur's Charybdeidee, a group not represented among the Medusae of the British coasts. Tamoya haplonema was described and figured twenty years ago by its discoverer, who found it on the shores of Santa Catharina (Brazil) - " am Strande der Praia de fora bei Desterro." It was not uncommon, more than a dozen specimens being sometimes procurable durino* one day. Occasionally it was accompanied by the much rarer T. quadrumana. No other naturalist appears to have met with these acalephs. Our Medusa, however, is very closely allied to Charybdea marsu-pialis, tbe common marsupial Medusa of the Mediterranean. This specie's, the first discovered and best-known member of its group, is 51* |