CTENOPHORES OF THE ATLANTIC COAST OF NORTH AMERICA 41 



Eurhamphaea vexilligera Gegenbaur. (Figs. 57 to 59, plate 11.) 



EurhamphcBa vexilligera, Gegenbaur, 1856, Archiv fiir Naturgesch., Jahrg. 22, 

 p. 193, Taf. 7, Fign. 1-4. — FoL, 1869, Anat. und Entwick. der Rippenquallen, 

 Berlin] p. i, Taf. i, 2. — Chun, 1880, Ctenophoren des Golfes von Neapel, p. 

 295. — JoNESCU, 1908, Jena. Zeit. ftir Naturwissen., Bd. 43, p. 685, Taf. 24, 

 Fign. 1-2. — MosER, 1908, Abhandl. Akad. Miinchen, Suppl. Bd., i, Abhandl. 

 4, p. 69. 



The EurhamphcEa from Florida appears to be identical with that 

 of the Mediterranean. Specimens 50 mm. long have occasionally been 

 found on calm days near the surface at Tortugas in May but most of 

 them are somewhat smaller than this. The dimensions in millimeters 

 of an average specimen fotmd at Tortugas, Florida, on May 15, 1906, 

 and figured in the plate , are as follows : total length , 3 9 ; sagittal diameter , 

 17; tentacular diameter, 9.5 ; length from aboral apex to base of auricles, 

 26. Gegenbaur's specimens from Messina appear to have been larger 

 than those we have thus far found in Florida, being 75 to 85 mm. long. 

 The body is elongated, narrow, and with considerable compression 

 in the tentacular axis. The aboral apex is drawn out in the form of 2 

 gelatinous, horn-shaped processes which flank the apical sense-organ 

 in the tentacular diameter, causing the sense-organ to be sunken at the 

 bottom of a very deep, narrow cleft. These apical processes give rise» 

 at their pointed upper ends, to a pair of very delicate, flexible, tapering, 

 simple filaments, each about one-third as long as the body of the cteno- 

 phore. 



The 4 subtentacular rows of combs extend upward to the tips of the 

 2 apical horns and the sensory tracts from the apical sense-organ extend 

 upward along the inner side of each aboral horn to meet them. The 4 

 subventral rows arise at a much lower level than the 4 others, and com- 

 mence at the level of the cleft of the apical sense-organ. The subten- 

 tacular rows of combs are about two-thirds as long as the body of the 

 animal, while the subventral rows are only a little more than half as long 

 as the total length of the ctenophore. There are about 30 combs in each 

 row. The auricles are one-seventh the length of the animal, and are 

 short, stiff, and stout, with the line of cilia extending in a loop up and 

 down the inner side, as in Leucothea. The oral lobes are also very short, 

 being only about one-fourth as long as the length of the body. The cleft, 

 at the bottom of which the apical sense-organ is placed, is nearly one- 

 fourth as deep as the length of the entire animal. The sensory pole-plate 

 and capsule containing the concretions are simple and without appen- 

 dages. The axial fimnel is less than one-seventh as long as the stomo- 

 daeum. The chymiferous canals are of very fine caliber. 



The 4 adradial vessels to the meridional subtentacular canals join 

 the latter half-way between the auricles and the aboral apex of the body, 

 thus at the middle of the rows of combs. On the other hand, the 4 ad- 

 radial vessels to the meridional subventral canals join the latter at the 

 upper ends of the subventral rows of combs. The meridional subventral 

 vessels wind very complexly in the oral lobes, no two individuals being 

 alike in this respect, and, indeed, the canal in one half of the same lobe 

 pursues a course which is not the exact reflection of its meandering 

 curves in the other half 



