MEDUS.K. 39 



a small funnel-shaped pit, which, like the groove, shows a fair amount of variation. 

 This pit is probably a vestige of the upper part of the peronial groove. The existence 

 of a peronial baud and of the vestiges of a peronial groove in the perradii without 

 tentacles marks the former existence of tentacles in those perradii, and shows that 

 Solmundclla is descended from a Medusa which had four perradial tentacles. 



The gonads are usually confined to the pouches of the stomach. In one 

 specimen, however, the gonads extend over the lower part of the stomach, nearly up 

 to the circular mouth. Many of the specimens of S. bitentaculata from Ceylon had 

 gonads on the lower wall of the stomach, as well as on the walls of the pouches. 



The two tentacles are of the normal type, and are long, four to seven times 

 as long as the diameter of the umbrella. None of the specimens possessed tentacles 

 exceeding 40 mm. in length. 



The margin of the umbrella was invariably curled up, and had to be unfolded 

 or cut off for the examination of the sense organs. Not a single specimen examined 

 possessed more than eight sense organs. There are four very minute interradial 

 bulbs on the margin. 



Distribution. S. mediterranea, as its name implies, occurs in the Mediterranean, 

 and it is also widely distributed over the Atlantic (Maas, 1893). It is recorded by 

 Maas (1906) for the Antarctic. About a dozen specimens were taken by the ' Belgica ' 

 about lat. 70 S., long. 81 to 90 W. They were mostly larval stages, but one adult, 

 3 mm. in diameter, was also found. Dr. Fewkes (1886) recognised from a sketch a 

 Solmundella which was taken in Discovery Harbour, lat. 81 44' N., long. 64 45' W. 

 As one is not likely to be led astray over even a rough drawing of a Solmundella, the 

 record shows that Solmundella extends from Pole to Pole. 



SC YPHOMEDU SM . 



INCORONATA. 



FAMILY LUCERNARIIDJL 



Genus LUCERNARIA, 0. F. Miiller, 1776. 



In the ' Southern Cross ' collection there are two fine specimens of a Lucernaria, 

 which were dredged off Cape Adare at the depth of 28 fathoms on 9th January, 1900. 

 Both specimens are in a contracted condition, and it was necessary for the determina- 

 tion of the specific characters and for the investigation of the internal anatomy to cut 

 them longitudinally in half. 



When Prof. Haeckel (1881) described Lucernaria balky phila, he pointed out that 

 the reproductive organs had lobed sacs and branched hollow spaces, and that in this 

 respect the species differed from the other Lucernarise. He was rather inclined to 

 make it a type of a new genus, for which he proposed the name /MC<'n/<ifi. 



