34 



SEA-SHORE LIFE 



The Milky Disk, (Aurelia flavidula, Fig. 9J, is common north 

 of Cape Cod to the Arctic Ocean, but is not very abundant along 

 our coast. The disk is about one foot in diameter, is flatter than 

 a hemisphere and is slightly milky in color, while the four horse- 

 shoe-shaped reproductive organs near the centre are yellowish-white 

 or pink. The mouth is at the centre of the concave side of the 

 disk and is surrounded by four long frilled lips. Sixteen sti'aight 

 and sixteen pitchfork-shaped vessels extend outward from the 



central stomach to the 

 edge of the disk. The 

 little pear-shaped lar- 

 vae are cast out in im- 

 mense numbers, and 

 ( >. ^^^- ^'^^ after swimming about 



i- ^ ^\ vv^-C^N ^°^' ^ ^^""^ '^''lys, they set- 



^ .'^ \ \ "\~\^ \ . ■ tie upon the bottom 



and develop a ring of 

 tentacles in a zone 

 around the mouth. 

 Finally the body of the 

 larva splits up into a 

 series of disks, each 

 one of which swims off 

 and develops into a 

 full-grown jellyfish. 



The Speckled Jel- 

 lyfisli, fDactylometra 

 qiiinquecirra, Fig. 10 J, 

 is found in a few local- 

 ities, as at Tiverton, 

 Rhode Island, in great 

 abundance, during the 

 latter half of the sum 

 mer, and it occurs in 

 the upper reaches of 

 many other Ijays and estuaries from Florida to Cape Cod. 



The disk becomes about one and one-half feet in diameter, 

 and its margin bears thirty-two notches and, when fully grown, 



Fig. 10 ; SPECKLED JELLYFISH. 



