200 Papers from the Department of Marine Biology. 



Cy tapis atlantica (Steenstrup). 

 (Plate 1, Fig. 2.) 



A single specimen of an immature Cytceis was found at the Murray Islands, 

 Torres Straits, Australia, on September 27, 1913. There were 8 simple oral 

 tentacles and the manubrium was mounted upon a small peduncle, this being 

 an indication of immaturity. The bell was half-egg-shaped, 3.5 mm. high 

 with thin walls. 4 perradial marginal tentacles, each about two-thirds as 

 long as the bell-diameter, and with large swollen basal bulbs, each with an 

 abaxial ectodermal ocellus and a mass of dark brown entodermal pigment. 

 The manubrium is about two-thirds as long as the depth of the bell-cavity 

 and the ectoderm is brownish yellow with a deeply pigmented, brown, central 

 region. The 4 radial-canals and the ring-canal are narrow and uniform in 

 width. 



This form so closely approaches the typical C. atlantica of the Mediterranean 

 and tropical Atlantic that I believe the two to be identical. 



Genus LAODICIA Lesson, 1843. 



Laodicia, LESSON, 1843, Hist. Zooph. Acal., p. 294. 



GENERIC CHARACTERS. 



Thaumantiadse with 4 gonads upon the 4 radial-canals. Clubs and cirri 

 may arise from or near the bell-margin between the tentacles. Ocelli may 

 occur on the inner (centrad) sides of the tentacle bulbs. The stomach lacks 

 a peduncle and has 4 simple lips. The gonads extend outward from the sides 

 of the stomach along the radial-canals and in mature medusae they nearly 

 touch the ring-canal. The hydroid is Cuspidella Hincks. 



Laodicia fijiana A. Agassiz and Mayer. 



Laodicea fijiana, AGASSIZ, A., and MAYER, 1899, Bull. Museum Corap. Zool. at Harvard Col'ege, 

 vol. 32, p. 163 plate 3, figs. 9, 10. 



The common Atlantic and Mediterranean Laodicea is L. cruciata L. Agassiz, 

 which has numerous clubs and cirri between the tentacles. In the tropical 

 Pacific this form is apparently replaced by the closely allied L. fijiana A. 

 Agassiz and Mayer, which has very few clubs and wholly lacks cirri between the 

 tentacles. Only about half of the tentacles in the Pacific form have ocelli, 

 whereas in the Atlantic variety the majority of the tentacle bulbs bear ocelli. 



Thus at Mae'r Island, Torres Straits, Australia, in a medusa with 120 

 tentacles, only 46 bore ocelli; another had 196 tentacles, only 56 of which bore 

 ocelli. In other specimens, however, nearly three-fourths of the tentacles 

 bore ocelli, in this respect resembling the Atlantic form. 



This medusa was quite common off Mae'r Island, Great Barrier Reef of 

 Queensland, in September and October. Specimens were found ranging up to 

 10 mm. in diameter, and in color they were milky, green, or violet as in L. 

 cruciata of the Atlantic. 



Genus PHIALIDIUM Leuckart, 1856. 



Phialidium, LEUCKART, 1856 Archiv fiir Naturgesch. Jahrg. 1, p. 18. 



GENERIC CHARACTERS. 



Eucopiidse with 16 or more marginal tentacles some of which remain per- 

 manently rudimentary, with closed vesicular lithocysts scattered somewhat 

 irregularly among the tentacles. 4 radial-canals upon which the 4 gonads are 

 placed. Manubrium without a well-developed peduncle and with 4 lips. The 



