SYSTEMATIC AND BIOLOGICAL ACCOUNT 107 



of the paired lamellae or mouth plates is greater than that of the base, and there is a groove between 

 outer edge of lamella and base, shown in my lateral views. The somatocyst is probably ovate in life, 

 as it is in the best preserved specimens. In those in which it is shrunken there is left an ovate outline 

 in the jelly, seen perhaps only in certain lights. The upper end of the stem complex projects upwards 

 into a small pocket in the base of the nectophore. This minor feature appears to be constant and 

 characteristic, and was shown in Sars's original figure, as well as by Bigelow (191 ib, pi. 5, fig. 8). 

 The base of the mouth-plate or lamella of the anterior nectophore is thicker than the terminal part, 

 and projects out nearly to the centre of the ostium. 



iQmm 



C ped 



Text-fig. 51. Sulculeolaria biloba. Posterior nectophore from Celtic Sea, M.B.A. Plymouth 1937 Cruise, St. 6. A, C, dorsal 

 and lateral view of the mouth-plate, x 2-5 ; B, ventrolateral view of proximal end to show triangular, articulating facets, x 3-5 ; 

 D, posterior nectophore, x 3-5. Bigelow's ' baso-ventral' sector indicated between k and / in fig. B. 



[Galetta] Sulculeolaria turgida (Gegenbaur), 1854. 



Gegenbaur (1854) described and figured (under the name Diphyes turgida) a species of 'Galetta 

 with no obvious somatocyst in the anterior and an undivided, rounded lamellato the posterior necto- 

 phore from the Straits of Messina. Candeias (1929) found the anterior nectophore of a similar species, 

 and in 1932 I reported on similar specimens from the Great Barrier Reef. Since then I have often 

 seen these forms. In recent years Dr T. Gamulin has been sending me fine specimens of both 

 nectophores of this species from the Adriatic. 



Since a species of this sort was long ago described from the Mediterranean and can still be recog- 

 nized there, I think it well to retain the name turgida for it. 



The two points about the alleged absence of a somatocyst and the undivided lamella of the anterior 

 nectophore can both be explained, I still think, by the difficulties encountered in trying to see the 

 details of these transparent animals. Dr Sears herself says ' both characters which make the species . . . 

 unique. . .are such that they could have been overlooked easily'. 



The most characteristic thing about the Mediterranean species is the rounded and undivided 

 lamella of the posterior nectophore (Text-fig. 52), which Gegenbaur clearly figured. 



The larva was figured by Gegenbaur (1853, pi. 16, fig. 20) and labelled in error, Diphyes sieboldii. 

 On 15 April 1950 Dr Mary Sears published a paper on siphonophores from the Marshall Islands. 

 In it appears a review of this subject and a description of the deformed anterior nectophore of 

 a similar species under the new name Galetta bigelowi in honour of Dr H. B. Bigelow that great 

 contributor to our knowledge of the group, and himself the foremost authority on it. I have found 

 similar specimens and think it is a distinct species. 



