OCR Text |
Show 1879.] PROF. J. R. GREENE ON A RARE MEDUSA. 795 common Mediterranean species. The rude, scarcely recognizable, figure is spoken of as " a very miserable representation " bv Edward Forbes1. Kisso2, in 1826, gave a very imperfect account of the species of Plancus, under the name proposed for it by Peron. Milne-Ed wards (1833) took the lead among modern naturalists in adequately redescribing this singular acaleph, whose marginal bodies were more fully analyzed by Gegenbaur in 1856. Gegenbaur again directed attention to C. marsupialis in his systematic essay on the Medusae, based chiefly on Mediterranean studies. Graffe (1858) also described it, noticing more especially its marginal bodies and bunches of gastric tentacles. Costa (1836) must be added to the list of original observers of the same species. Kolliker (1866), using the results of his own studies, briefly compared the minute structure of its gelatinous disk with that of other Medusae. Finally (1878) appeared the crowning work of Claus. Of the other Charybdeidee much less is known. Each species named in the annexed list appears to have been seen by one observer only. None is described in a manner at all satisfactory, if we except the two species of Fritz Muller. CHARYBDEA, Per. cf Le S.3 periphylla, Per. $ Le S.s Equatorial Atlantic. bicolor, Quoy Sf Gaim* Cape-Verd Islands. bitentaeulata, Quoy Sf Gaim? ... Amboina. campanella, Less.6 African Seas. alata, Reynaud 7 Atlantic Ocean. TAMOYA, F. Mull? haplonema, F. Midi? Santa Catharina. quadrumana, F. Mull? Santa Catharina. MARSUPIALIS, Less.9 flagellata, Less.10 New Guinea. BURSARIUS, Less.u cythereae, Less.12 New Guinea. Thus Charybdeidee have been found along the western shores of the equatorial Pacific and the adjacent parts of the Indian Ocean, in 1 ' British Naked-eyed Medusae,' p. 91. The supposed copy (vide Eschscholtz) of this figure by Bruguiere represented, according to Forbes, another species of Medusa. 2 Op. cit. (infra, p. 802). Little more than a record of the occurrence of this species near Nice. 3 Op. cit. p. 332 ; Milne-Edwards (Cuvier), pi. 55. fig. 2. 4 Op. cit. p. 293, and pi. 25. figs. 1-3. 5 Op. cit. p. 295, and pi. 25, figs. 4, 5. « Prodr. 23 ; Acalephes, p. 267, and pi. 6. fig. 6. 7 Lesson, Cent. zooL p. 95, and pi. 33; Marsupialis alata, Prodr. 26 ; Acalephes, p. 278. 8 Op. cit. (1859), p. 3, and Taf. i., ii. » Prodr. 10; Acalephes, p. 268. 10 Prodr. 27 ; Acalephes, p. 278. Not figured. 11 Voy. de la Coquille, Zoophytes, p. 108 ; Prodr. 11; Acalephes, 278. 18 Coquille, Zoophytes, p. 108, and pi. 14. fig. 1; Acalephes, p. 279. " Beroe gargantua, Less. Zool. Coq. pi. 15. fig. 1, seems to be only a large decayed specimen of the same species " (Agassiz, Contr. vol. iv. p. 174). |