394 AMALTH^A JANUARII. 



Htdeanth with the tentacles of the proximal zone very long, thirty to forty in 

 numher, those of the distal zone very short and numerous. 



GONOSOME. — Medusiferous peduncles divided at the apex. Medusa having an 

 elongated bell-shaped form, with rounded summit. 



Habitat. — Oil a muddy sandy sea bottom. 



Bathpnetrical distribution. — Deeper parts of Coralline zone. 



Locality. — Vestfjorden, near the Lofoden Islands, Sars. 



The present species, which was discovered by Sars in 1849, has hitherto been fomid in only 

 one locality, where, however, as Sars informs us, it is very abundant, and is often taken up with 

 its long tentacles entangled in the meshes of the dredge. 



It differs from Amalthaa uvifera by its greater size, by the longer proximal tentacles of its 

 hydranth, and the more numerous distal ones, and by its shorter and more sparingly branched 

 medusiferous peduncles. 



*^'^ 3. AMAXTHiE.i Jantiaeii, Stecnsirwp. 



CoRYMORPHA Januarii, — Steenstnq), Vidensk. Meddel fra d. Naturh. Foren. i Kjobenh., 1854, 



p. 46, Sars, Forhandl. i Vid. Selsk. i Christiania, 1859 ; 

 trans, in Wiegm. Archiv, 1860; and in Ann. Nat. Hist., 

 1861. 



AsiALTH/F.A. Januarii, — AUmun, in Ann. Nat. Hist., May, 1864. 



TROPHOSOME. — Htdeocatilus attaining a height of six inches. Hxdranths 

 with the tentacles of the proximal zone very long, above eighty in number. 



GONOSOME. — Peduncles of gonophores branched, about forty in number. 

 Planoblast with the height of the umbrella about twice its width. 



Colour. — Pale reddish. 



Locality. — Rio Janeiro, Steenstrup. 



The Amalthcea Januarii has been made known by Steenstrup, who described it from a single 

 specimen obtained in the harbour of Rio Janeiro, and sent in spirits to the Zoological Museum 

 of the University of Copenhagen. In the thickness of its stem, and in the size of its hydranth, it 

 surpasses all known hydroids, even the great Tubidaria regalis of the Spitzbergen seas, and the two 

 hydroids with largest hydranths which have as yet come to the notice of the zoologist have thus 

 been obtained, one from the icy ocean, the other from the regions within the Tropics. 



