SCTPHOZOA 



131 



Fig. 217 — Young stages of Aurelia aurita 

 rar. flavidiila (Agassiz). A, a sc.vpbistoma ; 

 B, a j'oung strobilia ; C, an epiiyra. 



A. aurita (L.) var. flavidula Per. and Les. (Figs. 216 and 217). Disc 

 may be 30 cm. or more in diameter; color white or bluish with pink 

 gonads: very common along the entire Atlantic coast, breeding through- 

 out the summer, the scyphis- 

 toma stage lasting throughout 

 the winter. 



Order 5. RHIZOSTOMAE. 



Marginal tentacles absent; 

 8 oral lobes very large and much 

 branched extend from the cen- 

 ter of the subumbrella with 

 sucking pores along their edges 

 which take the place of a mouth, 

 the mouth being usually obliter- 

 ated; oral tentacles border the 

 pores: 63 species. 



1. Stomolophus Agassiz. 

 Body hemispherical; the fused 

 oral lobes form a thick cylinder at the bottom of which are S^pairs of 

 frilled lobes and a central mouth opening; 8 rhopalia: 1 species. 



S. meleagris Ag. 

 (Fig. 218). Diameter 

 18- cm. ; color of exum- 

 brella brown : from 

 Florida to North Caro- 

 lina and occasionally to 

 the coast of New Eng- 

 land; often common. 



2. Rhopilema 

 Haeckel. Body hemi- 

 spherical; 8 separated, 

 3- winged oral lobes 

 from which numerous 

 club-shaped filaments 

 hang: 3 species, one of 

 which, R. esculenta, is 

 the edible jellyfish of 

 China and Japan. 

 R. verrilli (Fewkes). Diameter 35 cm.; 8 rhopalia; color yellowish: 

 Long Island Sound to North Carolina and southwards. 



Fig. 218 — Stomolophus meleagris (Mayer). 



