LEPTOMEDUS.E — PHOBTIS. 309 



Phortis palkensis. 



Irene palkensis, Browne, 1905, Report Pearl Oyster Fisheries, Gulf of Manaar, Suppl. Report No. 27, Roy. Soc. London, p. 141 , 

 plate 3, figs. 12-16. 



Bell 20 mm. wide, watch-glass-shaped, 4 times as wide as high. About 50 short tentacles, 

 and 100 to 150 marginal bulbs, all with excretory pores. No cirri. 2 to 4 lithocysts between 

 each successive pair of tentacles; each lithocyst with 2 concretions (range 1 to 4). Stomach on 

 a long, narrow, cylindrical peduncle. 4 short lips with sinuous margin. 4 gonads on the 4 

 radial-canals extending from the base of the peduncle to near the bell-margin. North coast ot 

 Ceylon; March. 



Very closely related to P. ceylonensis, but distinguished by its lithocysts having more than 

 one concretion and by its numerous marginal bulbs. 



Owing to its not having marginal cirri I am inclined to place this medusa in the genus 

 Phortis, rather than in Eirene. 



Phortis ceylonensis. 



Irene ceylonensis, Browne, 1905, Report Pearl Oyster Fisheries, Gulf of Manaar, Suppl. Report No. 27, Roy. Soc. London, p. 140, 

 plate 3, figs. 9-1 1.— Annandale, 1907, Journal and Proc. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, vol. 3, No. 2, p. 79, pi. 2, fig. 5. 



Bell flat with thin walls, 15 to 25 mm. wide. About 100 short tentacles, alternating with 

 about 100 lithocysts, each normally having one concretion. Neither marginal nor lateral cirri. 

 Peduncle long, narrow, cylindrical. Stomach short with 4 lips having sinuous margins. 4 

 radial-canals with 4 gonads upon them from the base of the peduncle to near the bell 

 margin. Colorless. 



Ceylon, July to November. When 5 mm. wide the medusa has about 28 tentacles; when 

 7 mm. wide about 36 tentacles; when 15 mm. wide about 72 tentacles. 



Very closely related to P. palkensis, but distinguished by the absence of rudimentary 

 tentacle-bulbs, and by the fact that each lithocyst contains only 1 concretion instead of 2 or 

 more as in P. palkensis. 



Annandale, 1907, found this medusa in great numbers in brackish pools at Port Can- 

 ning, Lower Bengal, India, where the salinity was only one-third as great as that ot sea- 

 water. The medusa; were very sluggish. The hydroid was also found here by Annandale. 

 It is less than 1 mm. high and colorless. Hydrorhiza branched, delicate, adherent to weeds, 

 and gives rise at fairly regular intervals to hydrothecae and gonothecae. The hydrothecae 

 are closed by an operculum formed of a number of convergent pieces and are mounted upon 

 hinged pedicels one-seventh as long as the cup of the theca. The gonothecae are larger than 

 the hydrothecae and are club-shaped with a terminal aperture. When set free the medusa 

 has 4 tentacles. 



Phortis kambara. 



Eirene kambara, Agassiz, A., and Mater, 1899, Bull. Museum Comp. Zool. at Harvard College, vol. 32, p. 169, plate 8, fig. 29. 



Bell flat with sloping sides, and 8 mm. in diameter. About 32 very small, slender tenta- 

 cles, having well-developed basal bulbs; no marginal cirri. 64 lithocysts, 2 between each 

 successive pair of tentacles, each containing a single spherical concretion. Velum well devel- 

 oped. The 4 radial-canals are straight and narrow, and the gonads occupy their lower 

 (outermost) portions. There is a distinct peduncle. The stomach is simple and has 4 curved 

 lips which are at the level of the velar opening. The entoderm of the basal bulbs of the ten- 

 tacles and the stomach are turquoise in color. 



Single specimen found in Suva Harbor, Fiji Islands, South Pacific, December 29, 1897. 

 This form differs from Phortis pyramidalis L. Agassiz, of the West Indies, in that the peduncle 

 is smaller and the stomach larger than in the Atlantic form. 



Phortis elliceana Agassiz and Mayer. 

 Phortis elliceana, Agassiz, A., and Mayer, 1902, Mem. Mus.Comp. Zool. at Harvard College, vol. 26, p. 146, plate 2, figs. 5-7. 



Bell much flatter than a hemisphere, about 16 mm. in diameter. The gelatinous substance 

 is thick at the aboral pole, but becomes thinner toward the bell-margin, which is sharp-edged. 

 About 56 hollow tentacle-bulbs. 4 of these are large and situated at the bases of the 4 radial- 



