344 LUMINOUS ORGANISMS OF FAR EAST 



fishermen call it* "Akashio," meaning "red stream." Many fish are at 

 times killed by such a stream, and the masses are strongly luminous 

 at night, 



Noctiluca does not occur in the Pacific coral islands, such as Palao, 

 Saipan, Truk, Yap, Ponape, and Marshall Islands, but appears abun- 

 dantly near the waters of continental islands, such as New Guinea, 

 Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Celebes, and also along the coast of the 

 Malay Peninsula and Indo-China. However, I have collected it in 

 the sea 300 miles north of the Celebes, where it developed along 

 the coast and was carried far distances by an ocean current. 



Noctiluca from Japan is pale pink in color, but the tropical species 

 from the East Indies and New Guinea are green. The green color 

 is due to symbionts, which Weill ( 1929 ) has called Chloroflagellates, 

 while Hada ( private communication ) considers them Chlamydomonas. 

 Ostroumoff ( 1924 ) reported that green Noctiluca is not luminous, but 

 I have observed brilliantly luminescent green Noctiluca on the north 

 coast of West New Guinea and other islands of the East Indies, and 

 also in Sandakan Bay of North Borneo. The luminosity of Sandakan 

 Bay was the most beautiful. 



Dr. Ueno (1937) found Noctiluca and the luminous species, Cera- 

 tium fusus, and also Peridlnium sp. in the swamp, Mokoto-Numa of 

 Hokkaido, Japan. This swamp was connected with the sea, the upper 

 surface being fresh water and the bottom sea water. According to 

 him, Noctilucae were floating 2 to 3 meters deep at the surface. There 

 were 44,000 per liter, and the color, due to green Chlamydomonas, 

 was green as in all tropical species. Unfortunately the luminosity of 

 these Noctilucae was not observed. 



Macroplankton 



Reports on luminosity of the macroplankton such as jellyfish, Pyro- 

 soma, and Salpa are almost lacking in Japan. The only reference 

 found was one on eggs of a Ctenophore, by Dr. Yo. K. Okada (1926). 



T. Komai has reported ctenophores (1918-21) in the neighborhood 

 of the Misaki Marine Biological Station and also cubomedusae ( 1938 ) 

 on the northern Pacific coast of Japan. Uchida ( 1928, 1929 ) described 

 Japanese Hydromedusae around the coast of Japan, and T. Kawamura 

 (1915) reported Siphonophores in the vicinity of Misaki. While 



