236 



MEDUS/E OF THE WORLD. 



hydrothecx are conical, with the opening closed bv an operculum formed of acute, triangular, 



convergent teeth, which may open or close the opening. The polypites are very extensible 



and have about 16 tentacles alternately elevated and depressed, and united at their bases by a 



very shallow web. Gonothecae large and may arise singly from the hydrorhiza or from the 



stem. They are oblong, club-shaped, and slightly gibbous at one side near base. When set 



free, the medusa has 4 tentacles. Height of hydroid ( ?) It invests the surface of Sertularian 



hydroids. 



Eucope picta Keferstein and Ehlers. 



Eucope picta, Keferstein und Ehlers, 1861, Zoolog. Beitrag., p. 88, taf. 13, fign. II, 12. 



Eucopium pictum + Eucopium primordiale, Haeckel, 1879, Syst. der Mcdusen, p. 168, taf. 11, fign. 1-3. 



Bell globular, founded, or hemispherical, about I mm. wide. 4 radially placed tentacles 

 with well-developed, conical basal bulbs. 8 adradial lithocysts, each with a single concretion. 

 4 slender radial-canals. Velum well-developed. Manubrium 4-sided, one-fourth to half as long 

 as depth of bell-cavity. 4 sac-like gonads from middle to upper thirds of the 4 radial-canals. 



Tentacle-bulbs, stomach, and gonads yellowish or brownish-yellow. 



Found at Messina and Corsica, Mediterranean. 



Fig. 12?.. — Eucope picta ("£. primordiale"). 

 Fig. 123. — Europe dissonema ("Saphenella dissonema"). 

 Above figures after Haeckel, 1879. 



Haeckel considers his Eucopium primordiale to be distinct from Eucope picta of Kefer- 

 stein and Ehlers, basing his distinction upon its larger gonads, flatter bell, and longer ten- 

 tacles, but the general resemblance between the two forms is so close that I am inclined to 

 consider them one and the same species in somewhat different stages of development. Haeckel 

 obtained his medusae from a Clytia-like hydroid resembling Clytta phnstoni. The goblet- 

 shaped, ringed gonangia arise between the hydranths from a creeping hydrorhiza, and each 

 gonangium contains 8 to 11 medusae. The hydranths are mounted upon long pedicels. 

 Haeckel proposes to call this hydroid Clytia "eucophora," but its specific name should be iden- 

 tical with that of its medusa. 



