The Comb Jellies and Others 



IS 



other comb jellies as large as Itself, l^xceedingly phos- 

 phorescent, its brilliant green light flashing intermit- 

 tently in the night time makes a spectacle in the waters 

 that is singularly entrancing. 



Another ctenophore, less often seen, though common 

 enough at times along the shores of New England, is 

 the "comet jelly" {Pleurobraehia rhododaetyla) ^ an 



pleurobrachia; the comet jelly. 



Iridescent bubble of pink of about an inch or more in 

 diameter. This little living transparent sphere courses 

 its way here and there through the water, sometimes 

 with a revolving and sometimes with a rotating motion 

 effected by the paddling of Its eight rows of cilia. But, 

 more often than not, a curious exhibition accompanies 

 these active movements. From what appears to be two 

 nodes, the size of a pin's head, situated on opposite 

 sides of the sphere, there will be extended and retracted, 

 suddenly or gradually, as the case may be, a pair of 

 threadlike streamers fringed along one side for their 

 whole length with long waving cilia. As these slender 



