NARCOMEDUSAE 83 



The specimens vary in diameter from 4 mm. to 10 mm. The number of tentacles varies between 

 6 and 9, regardless of the size of the specimens, as follows: 



Diam. (mm.) 



No. of , * , No. of 



tentacles 4 5 6 7 8 910 specimens 



6 __!___-__ I 



7 — --— 3— — — 3 



8 I — 323 — I 10 



9 — I — — — I — 2 



In this collection most of the specimens have 8 tentacles; the original specimen described by me 

 in 1948 had 9. Among 15 specimens from the west coast of Africa (Kramp 1955), 11 had 9 tentacles, 

 2 had 8 and 2 had 7. The number of antimeres is thus rather variable in this species. 



Medusa buds are developed on the subumbrellar side of the gastric pockets in ten specimens of 

 all sizes. 



In all the specimens the gastric pouches are typical in shape, broad at their base, rapidly tapering 

 outwards and separated by triangular spaces. As mentioned above, this species differs from C.fozvleri 

 in the possession of well-developed peripheral canals and in the shape of the gastric pouches, which 

 are spindle-shaped in fowleri. 



Distribution. Originally described from the Bay of Cadiz; recently recorded from three localities 

 south of the Canary Islands and in the Gulf of Guinea; the present collection shows that the species 

 is widely distributed in the warm parts of the Atlantic Ocean and off the east coast of Africa as well. 



Cunina globosa Eschscholtz 1829 



1829 Cunina globosa Eschscholtz, p. 117. PI. 9, figs. 3a-c. 



1909 Cunina globosa Bigelow, p. 57. PI. 15, fig. 3; PI. 17, figs. 3, 8. 



1910 Cunina globosa Mayer, p. 476. Text-figs. 311-12. 

 1918 Cunina globosa Bigelow, p. 393. 



1856 }Cunina lativentris Gegenbaur, p. 260. PI. 10, fig. 2. 



1904 'iCunina lativentris Maas, p. 31. 



1936 ^Cunina lativentris Damas, p. 1177 flf. 



Occurrence: St. 100. 1-2. x. 26. 33° 20' S, 15° 18' E to 33° 46' S, 15° 08' E. Net: TYF 0-5 m. 2 specimens; 



475(-o) m. 2 specimens. 

 The locality is near the Cape of Good Hope. 



The specimens have the following dimensions: 



Diam. (mm.) 12 12 15 18 



No. of tentacles 11 12 12 13 



These specimens agree so perfectly with Bigelow's description and figures of specimens from the 

 tropical East Pacific, that I refer them to the same species without any doubt. The umbrella is highly 

 vaulted, with a thick jelly; the gastric pouches are square, about as wide as long, and close together, 

 separated by very narrow septa. The marginal lappets are short and broad, with well-developed 

 peripheral canals, each with three very short otoporpae. The specimens are all male, and in two of 

 them the gonads are well de\;eloped, following the entire outlines of the gastric pouches as an uninter- 

 rupted folded band turning around the interior edges of the septa. 



The specimens differ from Bigelow's description in only one respect: they all have a broad, conical 

 gelatinous projection in the central portion of the subumbrella; it is not so large as in C. proboscidea, 

 but according to Bigelow a similar gelatinous projection is also present in specimens of C. lativentris 



