3460 



CCELENTERA TES 



Creeping medusae are also found in deep seas, although their presence at great 

 depths would hardly be expected. Haeckel remarks that "few animals appear 

 less suited for deep-sea life than the medusae, with their soft, mucilaginous, watery 

 "bodies, and their singular methods of swimming; nevertheless, a few species sink 

 down to great depths. ' ' One of the most interesting forms adapted for deep-sea 

 life is the Pectis antardica, belonging to the family of the Pectinidce. This animal 

 is remarkable for its sucker tentacles, which stand in numbers round the margin of 

 the firm cartilaginous disc (these in the illustration are represented in a contracted 

 condition). These tentacles bear a great resemblance to the tube feet of the star- 

 fishes, being very elastic and contractile, and carrying a sucker at the tip. They 



Corymorpha, WITH DETACHED 



are used in the living state for attachment, and for creeping in the manner of a star- 

 fish. The disc of Pectis is about one and one-half inches in diameter. 



Of the forms among which the reproductive individuals swim away as jelly- 

 fish, we may take as an example Corymorpha nutans. In this creature, between 

 the five individuals grouped together in the illustration, five small creatures, each 

 provided with a filamentous appendage, are to be seen swimming, which are the 

 medusa belonging to this animal. Each egg of these minute medusas, which are 

 no larger than in the illustration, develops into a ciliated larva, which, sinking to 

 the bottom, grows into an attached Corymorpha. The illustration shows these 

 animals, which in the polyp form are always single, of the natural size. Unlike 



