78 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



The locality is near the Cape of Good Hope. The specimen is 8 mm. in diameter with 28 tentacles; 

 it is somewhat mutilated, but sufficient details are retained for certain identification; parts of the 

 gonads are retained. 



In the British Museum (Natural History), London, I have seen numerous small specimens, 

 collected in Durban Bay, 26. viii. 19 15, labelled by E. T. Browne as Solmaris. They evidently belong 

 to S. corona. 



Distribution. Mediterranean. North Atlantic around the British Isles and on the west coast of 

 Norway. Also recorded from the Canary Islands (Haeckel 1 881, as 5. coronantha) and collected by the 

 'Atlantide' Expedition in two localities in the Gulf of Guinea (Kramp 1955, p. 276); now shown to 

 occur around South Africa. Records from the Indian and Pacific Oceans are more or less doubtful 

 as long as a thorough revision of the different species has not been carried out. 



Family CUNINIDAE sensu Bigelow 1909 



Narcomedusae with undivided radial gastric pouches, equal in number to the tentacles. 



The family comprises the genera Cunina Eschscholtz 1829 ^'^'^ Solmissus Haeckel 1879 and the 

 doubtful genus Ciinissa Haeckel 1879. As previously stated by me (Kramp 1953, p. 304) there is not 

 sufficient reason to retain the genus Cu?ioctantha Haeckel 1879 as distinct from Ciinina. 



Genus Solmissus Haeckel 



Cuninidae without peripheral canal system or otoporpae. 



Among the four species referred to this genus by Haeckel only one, 5. albescens (Gegenbaur 1856), 

 can be recognized as a valid species, and it is the type species of the genus. It is very common in the 

 Mediterranean and has been found nowhere else. S. ephesius Haeckel may be a young stage of the 

 same species. S. ambiguus Neppi (191 5) from the Adriatic Sea is certainly identical with S. albescens. 

 Two other valid species are described: S. incisa (Fewkes 1886) and S. marshalli Agassiz & Mayer 

 1902. S.faberi and bleekii Haeckel are supposed to be identical with incisa, but I doubt the correctness 

 of this supposition. In 5. faberi, which occurred in the South-West Atlantic, the gastric pouches are 

 described as heart-shaped, wider outwardly, and cleft by the insertions of the tentacles, thus very 

 different from the gastric pockets of incisa. In S. bleekii, from the Atlantic coast of South Africa, the 

 pouches are said to be rectangular, presumably similar to those of S. marshalli, but there are twice 

 as many tentacles and marginal lappets, 32 against 14-16, and there is only one marginal club on 

 each of the lappets. The names faberi and bleekii, therefore, cannot take priority over incisa or mar- 

 shalli. 



S. albescens and marshalli have about the same number of tentacles (up to 16). In marshalli, of 

 which numerous specimens are present in the Discovery collection, the gastric pouches are strictly 

 rectangular, about as long as wide ; in albescens they are more or less rounded, frequently pentagonal. 

 This difference might not be decisive, but albescens is also characterized by numerous small warts 

 on the exumbrella, whereas in marshalli the exumbrella is smooth. I think we must keep these two 

 species apart. 



A new and thorough description with excellent figures of Solmissus marshalli, based on living speci- 

 mens, was given by Bigelow (1909, p. 64), so that no doubt of its structure is left. The description 

 of S. incisa in the same paper (p. 67) is less complete; this species is particularly fragile, and the speci- 

 mens at Bigelow's disposal were more or less damaged. When more than 40 mm. in diameter, they 

 had 20-32 tentacles; a small specimen, 10 mm. wide, had 16 fully developed and 3 small tentacles. 

 As the greatest number observed in marshalli was 16, the two species were mainly distinguished from 



