274 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



Family CLADONEMIDAE 

 Genus Staurocladia Hartlaub (1917) 

 Syn. Cnidonetna Gilchrist, 1919. 



Generic characters. Cladonemidae adapted for crawling or walking. No brood 

 pouch above stomach. Gonads well developed, in ectodermal interradial pockets 

 around stomach. Sexes separate. Radial canals usually six. Tentacles numerous, 

 increasing with age, and not corresponding to number of radial canals, dichotomous ; 

 the upper branch with several clusters of nematocysts in addition to a terminal cluster. 

 No oral tentacles. Thick nematocyst ring under margin of bell. 



The above diagnosis is derived from Gilchrist (1919, p. 525) who established the 

 genus Cnidonetna for the reception of his new species, C. copensis " and probably all the 

 other southern Eleutheria" (i.e. vallentini Browne, 1902; charcoti Bedot, 1908; hodgsoni 

 Browne, 1910; and kerguelensis Gilchrist, 1919), and he was undoubtedly right in 

 separating these species from the old genus Eleutheria Quatrefages (1842). The generic 

 name must, however, be Staurocladia which was established by Hartlaub (1917, p. 401), 

 with S. vallentini (Browne) as its genotype. Hartlaub also "provisionally" placed 

 Eleutheria claparedei Hartlaub in his new genus ; this was a mistake, but the fact remains 

 that E. vallentini Browne was made the genotype of a new genus, Staurocladia, which 

 must stay as the generic name. Hartlaub 's diagnosis of the genus was as follows: 

 "Kleine, Eleiitheria-'dih.v\\Qhe Cladonemiden von kriechender Lebensweise; keine 

 dorsale Bruthohle; Gonade ringformig am Manubrium; getrennt geschlechtlich." The 

 number and the structure of the tentacles are not included in this diagnosis, but 

 in other respects it corresponds with the diagnosis of Cnidonetna as given by Gil- 

 christ. The genus Eleutheria Quatrefages, comprising the two European species E. 

 dichotoma Quatrefages and E. claparedei Hartlaub, is distinguished from Staurocladia 

 by the following characters: brood pouch present above stomach; gonads reduced, 

 lodged in brood pouch ; hermaphrodite ; tentacles of the same number as radial canals, 

 dichotomous, upper branch with only one, terminal, nematocyst cluster (Gilchrist, 

 1919). 



The history of the genera Eleutheria Quatrefages, Cladotiema Dujardin, and 

 Staurocladia Hartlaub ( = Cttidonetna Gilchrist) has been dealt with by several authors, 

 mainly by Gilchrist (1919, p. 518), Briggs (1920, p. 93), Lengerich (1922 a and b, who 

 united them all into one genus, Eleutheria), and Weill (1937, p. 281), and need not be 

 repeated here. Ten species of Staurocladia have been described ; their limitations are 

 more or less doubtful and are discussed below. 



Staurocladia vallentini (Browne) (Plate XIV, figs. 3-4 ; Plate XV, fig. 4 ; Plate XIX, fig. 2). 



Eleutheria vallentini Browne, 1902, p. 279. 

 Staurocladia vallentini Hartlaub, 1917, p. 401. 

 Cnidonema vallentini Gilchrist, 1919, p. 526. 



