MEDUSA. I. 



1 Laodicea fijiana A. Agassiz and Mayer 1899. — Bull. Mas. Coiiip. Zool. Vol.32, p. 163. Plate 3, fig.s. 9 10. 



ILaodice — var. indica Maas 1905. Craspedote Modu.sen d. Siboga-Exped. — Siboga-Exped., 



Monogr. X, p. 25. Taf. 2, Fig. 14—15; Taf. 5, Fig. 32-35. 

 ? — Maasii Browne 1907. Revision of the . . . Laodiceidic. — Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. Ser. 7. Vol. 



XX, p. 466. 

 ? — iiiaasi Vanhoffen 1911. — Deutsche Tiefsee-Exped. Bd. 19, p. 221. 



Description: The bell somewhat flatter than a hemisphere. The gelatinous substance not 

 very thick, about 2—3 mm at the apical point, evenly diminishing in thickness towards the bell- 

 margin. The diameter of the bell is usually about 25 mm, but it may amount to 37 mm. The stomach 

 is quadrate, spacious; its diameter is about one-fourth of the diameter of the bell. The stomach is 

 fairly short, and the walls are rather thin. The mouth edge is folded in large folds; lips are just 

 indicated, the four corners of the niotith being a little dilatated. The mouth-edge bends outwards, 

 forming a narrow, outturned edge. The dorsal wall of the stomach is attached to the subumbrella 

 along the arms of a perradial cross, four flat, triangular pouches being formed between the dorsal wall 

 of the stomach and the subumbrella. The figure of attachment is, however, in several cases not exactly 

 cross-shaped, but the four cross-arms meet somewhat obliquely (see Plate II, fig. 2). When seen from 

 the mouth the cross has the appearance of four concurrent grooves. Near the centre of the stomach 

 these grooves are open, but before they reach the corners of the stomach each of the grooves becomes 

 transformed into a closed canal, on account of the sides of the groove being developed into two folds 

 meeting each other from Ijoth sides, frequenth' after a wav\' line (Plate II, fig.s. 2 and 3). 



There are four radial canals, attached to the subumbrella by a very narrow line, straight or 

 slightly sinuous. The distal part (2 — 4 mm) of each of the canals is free of gonads and communicates 

 with the narrow circular vessel. The main part of the canal is occupied by the gonads, forming two 

 lateral bands, provided with a number of short, rounded lateral extensions, usualh- 6 — 8 on each side 

 of each of the canals. In fully de\^eloped individuals the breadth of the gonadial part of a radial canal 

 is about 3 mm. The gonads commence, in well-developed specimens, at a considerable distance within 

 the corners of the stomach, at the same point where the four dorsal grooves turn into closed canals 

 (see Plate II, fig. 2). The gonads occupy onlv the dorsal part of the lateral walls of the canal; below 

 the gonadial part there is a thin-walled part, which opens like a funnel into the corner of the stomach ; 

 this funnel-shaped part is separated from the space between the gonads by two lateral longitudinal 

 folds, continuations of the folds along the dorsal grooves in the stomach, mentioned above (Plate II, 

 figs. 2 and 3). At the distal end of the gonads the separation between the dorsal (gonadial) and the 

 ventral (funnel-shaped) part is, as a rule, not complete. Microtome-sections demonstrate, that the ento- 

 derm is quite thin in the gonadial part of the wall, but much more highly developed in the walls of 

 the funnel-shaped part; we must suppose, therefore, that the digestion of the food takes place in the latter. 



The bell-margin carries a very large number of tentacles; in well-sized specimens the number 

 amounts to about 600. In well-preserved specimens the tentacles are, usualh', as long as the bell- 

 radius; the distal end is spirally coiled. The tentacles are hollow. Tentacular bulbs are but .slightly 

 indicated, the pro.vimal part of the tentacles being a little inflated. The ectoderm of the basal bulb is 



Tlie Ingolf-Expediuon. V, 8. 3 



