ANTHOMEDUS.E ECTOPLEURA, CORYNITIS. 71 



There are two verticils of tentacles of 18 to 20 each. The basal tentacles are very long, and 

 the oral ones are short, and with knob-shaped ( ?) ends. The medusa-buds are borne in 

 clusters of from 7 to 9 on branched peduncles, which arise from the body of the polypite 

 between the two verticils of tentacles. When about to be set free each medusa-bud has 2 

 well-developed tentacles, thus resembling E. minerva of Tortugas, Florida. E. pacifica is 

 common in Blanche Bay, New Britain, South Pacific. It is attached to floats, fish-baskets, 

 etc. Color ( ?) This hydroid may be identical with E. minerva of the tropical Atlantic coast 

 of North America. 



Genus CORYNITIS McCrady, 1857. 



Corynitis, McCxADY, 1857, Gymn. Charleston Harbor, Proc. Elliott Soc. Charleston, p. 29. AGASSIZ, L., i86z, Cont. Nat. 



Hist. U. S., vol. 4, p. 340. AGASSIZ, A., 1865, North Amer. Acal., p. 1 83 . ALIMAN, 1871, Monog. Tubularian Hydroids, 



p. 286. 



Coryneles, HAECKEL, 1879, Syst. der Medusen, p. 48. 

 PlolocniJc, WAGNER, 1885, Wirbelloscn Weissen Meeres, p. 74. 

 Corynttcs, VANHOFFEN, 1891, Zool. Anzeiger, Bd. 14, p. 442. 



iV<m Corynitis, MURBACH, 1899, Quart. Journ. Mic. Sci., New Series, vol. 42, p. 354 (this is Zanclta}. 

 (')Modeeria, Protiara (young medusa), HAECKEL, 1879, Syst. der Medusen, p. 47. 

 (?) Tiaricodon, BROWNE, 1902, Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. 9, p. 276. 

 Non Corynitis, NUTTING, 1901, Bull. U. S. Fish Commission for 1899, p. 372 (this is Zanclta). 

 Nan Corynitis, HARGITT, 1904, Bull. U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, vol. 24, p. 42 (this is Zanclea). 

 Syncorync linvillei (hydroid), HARGITT, 1904, Biological Bulletin, Woods Hole, vol. 7, p. 251, i fig.; Ibid., 1908, vol. 14, p. 



101, fig. I. 



The type species of this genus is Corynitis agassizii described by McCrady from Charles- 

 ton Harbor, South Carolina. 



GENERIC CHARACTERS. 



Codonidae in which the manubnum is cruciform in cross-section. The 4 tentacle-bulbs 

 have large, abaxial, ectodermal ocelli. The tentacles are unbranched and terminate each in 

 a knob-like cluster of nematocysts, and the shaft of each tentacle is besprinkled with wart- 

 like clusters of nematocysts. There are 8 irregular, longitudinal rows of nematocysts upon the 

 exumbrella, 4 of these being radial and 4 interradial in position. The hydroid is S\ncor\n, . 



McCrady, 1857, and L. Agassiz, 1862, described a hydroid which they ascribed to 

 Corynitis agassizii, but which is certainly very close to, if not identical with, the hydroid 

 generation of Zanclea. Hargitt, on the other hand, has discovered that Corynitis agassizii 

 arises from a Syncoryne-\\ke hydroid which he called S. lin-ctllt-i. 



In the medusae of Ectopleura, Zanclea, and Corynitis there are longitudinal patches of 

 nematocysts upon the exumbrella. In Corynitis agassizii the tentacles terminate each in a 

 knob-like club. In Zanclea dichotoma they terminate in a similar manner, but in addition 

 they give rise to side branches all arising from the aboral side of the tentacles, and each termi- 

 nating in a knob-like cluster of nematocysts. In Corynitis, on the other hand, there are 

 merely scattered wart-like clusters of nematocysts over the shaft of each tentacle. It is possible 

 that Zanclea arose from some Coryrntis-\]ke medusa; certainly Zancleopsis dichotoma is inter- 

 mediate in many characters between Corynitis agassizii and Zanclea gemmosa. 



However doubtful the relationship may be between Corynitis and the ClaJonemince, 

 there can be no doubt of its close relationship to Slabberia and Sarsia. The young medusa of 

 Corynitis can not be distinguished from the young of Slabberia. 



Murbach and Nutting are mistaken in their Corynitis medusa, which is clearly Gcmmaria 

 (Zanclea). The medusa of Corynitis is so clearly described and figured by McCrady as to be 

 unmistakable. I have frequently taken it in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, where 

 McCrady discovered it, and his figure and description enable one instantly to recognize it. 

 It lacks the feathered tentacles of Gemmarta (Zanclea). 



Hargitt, 1904, at first followed Murbach in this erroneous identification of Corynitis, 

 but his final discovery of the Syncoryni--\\ke hydroid of Corynitis enabled him not only to 

 correct the mistake, but to establish the close relationship between Corynitis and other Sarsia- 

 like medusae. 



