Meduse of the Philippines and of Torres Straits. 179 
Chrysaora melanaster Brandt. 
Chrysaora melanaster, BRANDT, 1838, Mém. Acad. Sci. St. Petersbourg, Sci. Nat., sér. 6, tome 4, 
Dp. ooo, Lat. 16517 
There is a well-preserved specimen of this medusa from Station D 5461, 
June 14, 1909, San Miguel Bay, east coast of Luzon, depth 11 fathoms. The 
bell is about 130 mm. in diameter and slightly flatter than a hemisphere. There 
are 16 radiating spoke-like streaks of faint umber color extending from near 
the apex of the exumbrella to the bell-margin in the radii of the 16 cleft velar 
lobes. These 16 streaks occupy depressed radial areas sunken below the 
general level of the contour of the exumbrella, and they are besprinkled 
coarsely with wart-like nematocyst clusters of cinnamon-brown color. 
There are 8 rhopalia, 3X8 tentacles, and 68 marginal lobes. The velar 
lobes are cleft as in Brandt’s figures and are nearly similar in shape and size 
to the ocular lappets. They are, however, not narrower at the base than out- 
wardly, as in Brandt’s figures, but are oval and taper quite regularly from 
base to tip. 
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Fig. 2.—An octant of the bell-margin of Chrysaora melanaster, from exumbrella side. 
The tentacles are short and slender, the longest being not over 60 mm. 
The mouth-arms are long and slender, folded complexly, and about 170 mm. 
long. The gonads are well developed, apparently mature, and protrude 
through the subgenital ostia, the subgenital ostia being fully twice as wide as 
the perradial columns between them. Thus each ostium is 28 mm. long 
(circumferentially) and 15 mm. wide (radially), while the perradial columns 
of the mouth-arms are only 13 mm. wide. 
In formalin the general color of the medusa is milky custard-yellow, the 
gonads being lighter. The apex of the exumbrella is besprinkled with cinna- 
mon-colored nematocyst warts, and the 16 radial streaks of light umber color 
are also besprinkled with brown-colored clusters of nematocysts. This medusa 
is widely distributed over the north Pacific from Kamtschatka to California, 
but this Philippine Island specimen is the first which has been obtained in the 
tropics. 
