50 Bulletin Vanderbilt Marine Museum, Vol. VII 



Distribution: This pelagic species is widely distributed in 

 the Indo-Pacific, having been reported from the east coast of 

 Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Malay Archipelago, the China Sea 

 northward to Japan and outward through Malaysia in the Pacific 

 Ocean as far as the Fiji Archipelago. The species possesses much 

 variation which has resulted in the recognition of three or more 

 varieties, namely, Vanhoffen's M. sibogae from the Malay Archi- 

 pelago ; Schultze's M. siderea of the east African coast, and Kish- 

 inouye's M. physophora found off the coasts of Shima and Sagami, 

 Japan, during summer. It was first taken on the coasts of New 

 Guinea (Lesson) while the most recent record, from Banka Straits, 

 by the "Alva" refers to the typical papua and not the variety 

 sibogae. 



Material examined : Twenty-six jellies, from Muntok, Banka 

 Island, Banka Straits, Dutch East Indies, October, 1931 ; labeled 

 taken with large sea-jelly, Versura palmata Haeckel. 



Colour: This jelly-fish is variable in colour, the bell and 

 mouth organs normally being greenish-blue or olive-green to olive- 

 brown, the exumbrella having, especially near the margin, numer- 

 ous oval markings of white, yellow, brown, blue or green. The 

 frills of the mouths vary from olive, greenish-blue, yellowish- 

 green to brown, usually in tones harmonious with the remainder 

 of the organism. 



Technical description : The bell is from 25 to 60 millimeters 

 diameter in the present series consisting of twenty-six specimens. 

 Specimens measuring 80 millimeters diameter have been recorded 

 by Mayer. 



The bell is hemispherical, in preserved specimens varying 

 from slightly less or slightly greater fullness than a hemisphere, 

 of firm, gelatinous substance, the exumbrella showing fine granu- 

 lations. There are eight rhopalia, each possessing a pigmented 

 mass of concretions and a shallow, exumbrella, sensory pit devoid 

 of furrows. There are eighty marginal lappets. Each octant has 

 two small, pointed ocular lappets and eight larger, distally rounded 

 velar lappets, with deep grooves between them extending up the 

 sides of the umbrella for a distance about equal to two and a half 

 or three times the width of a velar lappet. The arm disk is a 

 little more than half the width of the bell. The four subgenital 



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