506 MEDUSA OF THE WORLD. 



Genus (?) PROCHARYBDIS Haeckel, 1880. 



Procharybdis, HAECKEL, 1880, Syst. der Medusen, p. 437. 



The type species is P. tetraptera Haeckel from the Sunda Islands, Indian Ocean. It 

 may prove to be only a species of Carybdea which is regenerating its velum or is immature. 



GENERIC CHARACTERS. 



Carybdeidae with 4 simple, interradial tentacles with pedalia. Velarium simple, without 

 velar canals or frenulse. 



P. turncula and P. flagellata of Haeckel, loc cit., p. 438, are both too inadequately known 

 to be profitably retained in scientific literature. P. cuboides Haeckel, is, I believe, a young 

 stage of the common Carybdea rastonn. The briefly described Procharybdis securlgera 

 Haeckel, loc cit., p. 640, from the Pacific coast of Central America, may be C. rastonii, but 

 it is said to have tentacles which terminate each in a knob. This character is seen in young 

 individuals of Carybdea. 



Procharybdis tetraptera Haeckel. 



Procharybdis tetra/itera, HAECKEL, 1880, Syst. dcr Medusen, p. 437, taf. 25, 6gn. 3, 4. 



Bell dome-like with thick walls, 30 mm. high, 20 mm. wide. 4 very large, flat, expanded, 

 simitar-shaped pedalia, with blunt outer ends; these pedalia are nearly as long as the bell- 

 height and nearly one-third as wide as they are long; they are relatively larger than in any 

 other known form of Carybdeidae. The 4 perradial sense-clubs are set in niches nearly as 

 far above the bell-margin as the width of the bases of the pedalia. Each sense-club is small 

 and apparently contains only a single very large eye and an entodermal concretion. Each 

 of the flexible, hollow tentacles tapers to a pointed end. They are ringed with nematocysts 

 and are about 1.5 times as long as bell-height. 



The velarium is without velar canals or bracket-like frenulas, and its margin is entire. 

 It is only about twice as wide as the tentacles and appears to be very rudimentary. It occurs 

 to me that this velarium may be regenerating after having been lost through accident. Should 

 the velarium have velar canals and frenulae, the medusa would be one of the genus Carybdea 

 which it resembles in all other respects. 



The stomach is small, wide, flat, with 4 large, pointed lips. There are 4 pairs of gastric 

 cirri in the interradial corners of the stomach, each consisting of an axial shaft which gives 

 rise to 20 to 30 filaments on one side. The 8 gonads are developed as in other species of 

 Carybdeidae on both sides of the 4 interradial septa. 



Haeckel describes this medusa from a single preserved specimen found in the Sunda 

 Archipelago, Indian Ocean. 



Genus CARYBDEA Pe"ron and Lesueur, 1809. 



Carybdea, PERON ET LESUEUR, 1809, Tableau des Meduses, Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat., tome 14, p. 331. MILNE-EDWARDS, 1833, 



Annal. des Sci. Nat., tome 28, p. 248 

 Charybdea, CLAUS, 1878, Arbeit. Zool. Inst. Univ. Wien., Bd. I, p. 221. HAECKEL, 1880, Syst. der Medusen, p. 439; 1881, 



Deep-sea Medusae Challenger Expedition, Zool., vol. 4, p. 91. CONANT, 1898, Mem. Biol. Lab. Johns Hopkins Univ., 



vol. 4, No. i, p. 3. HAACKE, 1887, Jenaische Zeit. fiir Naturwissen., Bd. 20, p. 590. BIGELOW, H. B., 1909, Mem. Mus. 



Comp. Zool. at Harvard College, vol. 37, p. 17. MAAS, 1909, Abhandl. Aadk. Wissen., Miinchen, Suppl. Bd. i, Ahandl. 



8, p. 40. 



The type species is C. marsupialis Peron and Lesueur, of the Mediterranean. 



GENERIC CHARACTERS. 



Carybdeidae with 4 simple, interradial pedalia and tentacles. Velarium supported by 4 

 perradial, bracket-like frenulse which bind it to the subumbrella. Velar canals present. Stom- 

 ach small, without bracket-like mesenteries joining it to the subumbrella. Development 

 unknown. 



Peron and Lesueur spell this generic name Carybdea; Agassiz, 1862, Cont. Nat. Hist. 

 U. S., vol. 4, p. 173, changed it to Charybdea. 



All the species of this genus are inhabitants of warm seas. None have been taken north 

 of Cape Cod on the North American coast, or north of the Mediterranean in Europe. Owing 

 to the slight differences between them, it is exceedingly difficult to separate the species one 



