348 BULLETIN 100, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



BEROE CUCUMIS Fabricius, variety OVATA Bosc. 



Plate 38, figs. 8-10. 



Beroc ovatus Bosc, 1892, p. 149, pi. 18, fig. 1. Synonymy, Mortensen, 1912, 

 p. 83. 



Beroc cucumis variety onita — material examined. 



All the Beroes in the present series show the canal structure typical 

 of ovata. The photographs show that the canals derived from the 

 meridional system do not form a network (pi. 43, fig. 8) ; that there 

 are numerous transverse stolons uniting with the gastric system (pi. 

 43, fig. 9) ; and that the latter anastomose in a loose and irregular net. 

 The gonads are in the form of bands without lateral lobes (pi. 43, 

 fig. 10). 



The preserved specimens range in outline from the example 

 photographed to egg-shaped; and a drawing made on board the Bu- 

 reau of Fisheries steamer Albatross from life is of the typical ovata 

 form. Their chief interest lies in the fact that, so far as I can learn, 

 the ovata form is not recorded from the Indo-Pacific. although cucu- 

 mis and B. forskalii both have been. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



The list of Medusae from the Philippines lacks several which 

 might have been expected; for instance, I could not find a single 

 example of Aglaura hemistoma in the considerable quantity of un- 

 sorted Plankton submitted to me. But since this species is not only 

 known from Maylayan waters, but is recorded very generally from 

 the warmer parts of all oceans, it is hardly conceivable that it can be 

 absent from the Philippines. The same is true of the species of 

 Liriope with round or oval gonads. Proboscidactyla ornata, too, 

 placed in the oceanic group by its budding phase, has been taken on 

 both sides of the Philippines, and so have Slabberia brownei and 

 Gonionemws suvaensis. These instances merely show how far from 

 adequate, as a survey of the Medusa fauna of any region, a single 

 collection is likely to be. 



