230 BULLETIN" 100, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



TABULAR DESCRIPTIONS. 



Table showing the chief characteristics of Philippine Scypho- 

 medusae. This table is designed to enable one to recognize each 

 species from its most conspicuous features, but it must be used with 

 caution, and is worthless for the medusae of regions other than the 

 Philippines. 



Family CARYBDEIDAE. 



Bell high, pale milky colored, more or less rectangular. Four 

 small niches on the sides of the bell alternating with the tentacles. 

 A minute club, bearing several eyes, is set within each niche. The 

 tapering flexible, pale pink sharply stinging tentacles arise from the 

 ends of stiff, spatula-shaped projections from the rim of the bell. 



1. Bell about 13 inches high, only slightly higher than it is wide. Four ten- 



tacles Carybdea rastonii. 



2. Bell about 9 inches high, about twice as high as wide. Four tentacles. 



Carybdea alata, var. grandis. 



3. About 28 tentacles arising from the ends of four stiff finger-shaped clusters 



of projections from the rim of the bell Chiropsalmus quadrigatus. 



Family CORONATE. 



These medusae have a deep constriction, or ring-furrow, cutting 

 into the sides of the bell. 



1. A deep-sea medusa, purple-brown or claret colored. Usually about 2 to 6 



inches high. Sixteen marginal lobes, 12 tentacles. Bell conical or dome- 

 like with a deep ring-furrow extending around about one-third the way 

 up the side of the bell Periphylla hyacinthina. 



2. Bell thimble-shaped, i an inch high, brown with darker colored warts on the 



concave side. Swims very actively, with an incessant pulsation, near the 

 surface in great swarms Limiche unguiculata. 



3. A deep-sea medusa with flat, thick lenticular bell usually about 1$ to 4 



inches wide; the central part separated by a deep constriction from the 

 numerous lappets. Numerous short tentacles alternate with the equally 

 numerous cleft lappets. Deep brownish red lappets and mouth parts. 



Atoll a bairdii, etc. 



Family SEMAEOSTOMAE. 



Usually large medusae, with marginal tentacles. Without a ring- 

 furrow in the bell. With a single cross-shaped mouth at the middle 

 of the concave side of the umbrella. Often seen in harbors. 



1. Animal blue-violet with purple streaks on the outer side of the bell, eight 



long, tapering tentacles, and four long, flexible curtain-like lips. Bell about 

 2 inches wide, and lips 3 inches long Pclagia panopyra. 



2. Sixteen areas of reddish-rosin colored dots radiate outward in a spokelike 



manner from the center to the bell margin. Twenty-four tentacles and 48 

 marginal lobes (16 small and 32 large). Bell about 5 inches wide. 



Chrysaora melanaster. 



