LEPTOMEDUS^ — vEQUOREA. 



329 



Haecker gives details of the process of maturation of the egg. The nucleolus is cast out 

 into the cytoplasm and degenerates. , 



The hydroid is very minute and is apparently a Campanultna. 1 he smooth-stemmed 

 polypites arise singly (or branched ?) from a creeping hydrorhiza. The hydrothecs are cylin- 

 drical, truncated squarely below, and the orifice is armed with many convergent segments. 

 The polypites have 12 alternating tentacles, which are united for about one-third of their 

 length by a basal web. The gonangia are unknown. 



This medusa appears to be widely distributed, being found in the Mediterranean and ott 

 the Atlantic coasts of Europe northward to the Arctic coast of Norway. It is clearly identical 

 with Zyrodactyla cyanea Agassiz, which is very abundant at Tortugas, Florida. The medusa 

 may be colorless, milky, blue, or violet, and is very variable in the order of appearance and 

 development of radial-canals, tentacles, stomach, and gonads. Polycanna amencana Fewkes, 

 from the Gulf Stream off the coast of the United States, is apparently identical with Mquorea 



forskalea. . 



In the Pacific JEquorea eurhodina Peron and Lesueur from Bass Straits, Australia, appears 

 to be closely related to, if not identical with, M. forskalea; but its true relationship can not be 

 determined from the meager account given by Peron and Lesueur. The same statements 

 apply also to /Equorea cyanea from off the coast of New Guinea. 



Fig. 188— /Equorea foridatm, after A. Agassiz, in North American Acaleplue. 

 Fig. 189— .Equorea albida, from A. Agassiz, in North American Acalepha. 



/Equorea ccerulescens {Zygodactyla coerulescens Brandt) from off the coast of Japan may 

 possibly be identical with jE. forskalea. 



Bigelow (1909, Mem. Museum Comp. Zool. at Harvard College, vol. 37, p. 177, plates 

 4 and 35), records two specimens of JE. ccerulescens from the eastern tropical Pacific, one 

 being 12 and the other 60 mm. in diameter. The tentacles are not arranged in two rows as 

 figured by Brandt. Bigelow's large specimen had 94 radial-canals, about 450 tentacles with 

 elongated, compressed, conical basal bulbs and numerous, rudimentary, marginal knobs and 

 lithocysts. Stomach half as wide as the bell-diameter. 31 lips. Tentacle-bulbs deep 



bluish-black. 



I believe that/E.norvegica Browne is probMyidenticzlvnthrfiquoreaforskalea. Browne s 



description of JEquorea "norvegica" is as follows: 



Bell flat, 90 mm. wide. About 200 tentacles with long, laterally compressed, tapering, 

 basal bulbs. Small marginal bulbs, some with a minute tentacle, alternate with the thickly 

 crowded, long tentacles. I to 2 lithocysts between every tentacle and marginal bulb. Excre- 

 tory papilbe ( ?) at the bases of the tentacles, on the subumbrella above the ring-canal. 98 

 radial-canals. Stomach flat, half as wide as the bell and quite shallow. 46 long lips with 

 fimbriated edges. Bilaminate, linear gonads on all 98 radial-canals, from near the stomach to 

 near the ring-canal. Transparent, gonads white or gray. Lofoten Islands, Arctic Ocean, 

 January. One specimen. 



