Vol. XXII, pp. 179-182 October 30, 1909 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



TPiE nomp:nclatural authority for gonione- 



MUS MURBACHII. 

 BY p:. l. morris. 



In looking up the name of a small jellyfish from Woods Holl 



to determine the date of authority, the writer came upon the 



following synonomy : * 



" Gonionemui A. Agassiz, 1862, Contrib. Nat. Hist. U. S., IV, 

 p. 350. From twmo, angled, and v-qixa, thread, ' kneed ten- 

 tacles.' 



Gonynema Haeckel, 1879, System der Medusen. 



Gonionemus Murbach, 1895, Journ. Morph., XI, 2. 



Gonionemus Murbachii Ma.yer, 1901, Brooklyn Inst.Sci. BuL, 1, 1 . 



Gonionema A. Agassiz, MSS. 



Gonionema Murbachii Perkins, Johns Hopkins Un. Cir., May, 

 1902." 



This implies that the species in question was published by 

 A. G. Mayer in 1901, in distinction from the Gulf of Georgia 

 species named by A. Agassiz in 1862. 



Having been unable to find the specific binomial in any index 

 consulted at the time, the references in the above quoted synon- 

 omy were carefully considered, with the following observations: 



Murbach, 1895 (loc. cit. pp. 493-495), quoted sufficiently 

 from Agassiz's diagnosis of Gonionemus vertens A. Agassiz to 

 establish his ( Murbach 's) application of Agassiz's binary name. 

 This quotation he supplemented and corrected by a full descrip- 

 tion of his own observations on the medusae, their habits, size, 

 parts, colors, sexes and reproductive cells. 



Mayer, 1901 Ooc. cit. p. 5), in a paper on " Variation of a 

 Newly-arisen Species of Medusa " (^Pseudoclj/tia pentataf) , refers 



• Perkins, 1903, in : Proc. Pliila. Acad. Nat. Sci. 54 {1902). 750-790. t. 31-31,, f. l-i7. 

 T Mayer, 1900, in : Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harv. Coll., 37. 53. 



28— Proc. Biol. i?oc. Wash., Vol. XXII, 1909. (179) 



