50 THE OCEANIC HYDROZOA. 



Fam. SPHyERONECTIDiE. 



Gems SPH.ERONECTES (nov. gen.) 



The proximal nectocalyx (which alone has been hitherto observed) is spheroidal, and 

 of a gelatinous texture. The hydroecium is completely closed behind. Hydrophyllia (?) 



SphjEronectes Kollikeri. pi. Ill, fig. 4. 

 Rosacea, Huxley, 1851. 



Proximal nectocalyx a spheroid of gelatinous consistency, presenting anteriorly' a wide 

 circular aperture, surrounded by a valvular membrane. This leads into a spacious, irregularly 

 hemispherical sac, which reaches as far as the centre of the spheroid. Four canals run along 

 the sides of the nectosac, and terminate above in a short, narrow duct, which passes to the 

 closed extremity of a tubular hydroecium, whose other end terminates in an aperture in front 

 of the median plane of the spheroid. The hydroecium traverses more than two thirds of 

 the diameter of the spheroid, and contains the slender coenosarc which is affixed to its closed 

 end, and there receives the nectocalycine duct. It gives off a narrow csecal somatocyst, 

 which bends a little downwards, and ends near the proximal surface of the organ. 



There was no second nectocalyx nor any indication of the attachment of one, nor were 

 there any hydrophyllia developed. 



Length of the superior uectocalyx . . \ inch. 



I obtained altogether three specimens of a single species of this genus — in the Indian 

 Ocean in 1847, on the east coast of Australia in 1848, and in Torres Straits, off the south 

 coast of New Guinea, in 1849. 



In all the coenosarc was incomplete, though some of the polypites were fully developed 

 and provided with tentacles of the ordinary characters. In one I observed rudimentary 

 reproductive organs attached to the pedicle of a polypite. 



The wall of the somatocyst was vacuolated in some specimens, in others not. There was 

 a very distinct pyloric valve, and the tentacle arose immediately beneath it, from the wall of 

 the polypite, into whose cavity its canal directly opened. 



In one specimen the lip of the nectosac appeared to be obscurely four-lobed, and in all. 

 the sacculi of the tentacles had a deep-red colour. 



' Supposing the nectocalyx to have its hydroecium vertical, which is the position in whicli Diphyes 

 and Abyla have been described. 



