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bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



The only siphonophore which occurs in any numbers in the Gulf is 

 Stephanomia cara; but unfortunately it is so fragile that the speci- 

 mens captured are usually in the most fragmentary state imaginable. 

 The identification of the records listed (p. 303) depends on the shape 

 of the nectophores and the presence of the oil-globule in the palpons 

 (Fewkes, 1888), no tentilla being intact. 



The captures of Biphyes arctica at Station 10220 in 1914, and again 

 off Shelburne (Station 10295) in 1915, are of interest because this 

 siphonophore has not been recorded previously from American waters. 

 In these specimens all the superior nectophores are in such good 

 condition and agree so well both with Chun's (1897) figures and with" 

 the Behring Sea series which I have studied (1913) that the identifica- 

 tion was easy. At the moment the geographic status of D. arctia is 

 doubtful, for though it was formerly thought to be a typical Arctic 

 form (1911, Chun, 1897, Romer, 1901), it has recently been captured 

 in deep hauls by the Gauss off Cape Verde (Moser, 1915). Certainly, 

 however, it does not belong to the surface waters of the Gulf Stream; 

 and so far as American coast waters are concerned it can safely be 

 ascribed a northern origin. The local swarming of Pleurobrachia 

 pileus has already been noted (p. 242); as has also the occurrence of 

 the Arctic ctenophore Mertcnsia ovuvi in the Gulf of Maine in May 

 and off Shelburne in June, 1915 (Stations 10271, 10272, 10291, 

 10294, p. 249). 



The following warm-water coelenterates were taken in the inner 

 edge of the Gulf Stream off Georges Bank, in July 1914 (Station 

 10218). 



