MEDUSA. I. 6l 



The specimen from the Faeroe Islands (Loc. i) is a female, the gonads of which are very much 

 sinuous but not mature. From Loc. 3 there are one female and three males. The specimen from Loc. 2 

 is a male, the gonads of which are three-fourth the length of the radial canals; the number of tent- 

 acles in this specimen cannot be stated exactly, but it exceeds 40. In the males the gonadial part of 

 the radial canal is laterally compressed like a broad band and somewhat sinuous. Beside the speci- 

 mens here mentioned the Zoological Museum possesses a number of fairly small specimens from 

 Danish waters. 



The species is previously known only from rather few localities, viz. Bergen (Browne 1903), 

 Cromarty Firth (Romanes), Firth of Clyde (Browne 19x15 a), Port Erin (Browne 1895 and 19053), 

 and perhaps Plymouth (Browne, 1905, is not quite sure that the specimen of " Mitrocomella fulva" 

 from Plymouth belongs to the present species). The known area of distribution is now extended to 

 comprise the Faeroe Islands and the Danish waters from the Slugen (near Esbjerg) to Anholt Knob 

 in the Kattegat. 



At Port Erin and in the Firth of Clyde it was found in June and July; moreover Browne 

 found many large specimens at Port Erin in May and quite young stages at the end of April 1894. 

 The comparatively large specimens examined by me from the Faeroe Islands, the coast at Bergen, 

 and the North Sea have all been found in May. The specimens from the Danish waters, which are 

 all fairly small, have been taken on the following dates: Slugen September agth, Horns Rev Septem- 

 ber nth and November gth, Skagerrak June ist and Juli 29th, Anholt Knob November 2nd. 



The data now at hand do not constitute a sufficient base on which to give a reliable picture 

 of the life history of the medusa. As large specimens have been found in the spring, the medusa must 

 be able to pass the winter and thus to breed in the spring; but it seems also that the breeding may 

 take place in the summer time, as the specimen described by Browne from Firth of Clyde, taken on 

 June 27th, contained large eggs, many of which were "ready for liberation"; the specimen in question 

 was only 10 mm in diameter, so that the size, at which the medusa becomes mature, is subject to 

 much variation. 



Genus Cosmetira (Forbes) Hartlaub. 



Forbes (1848, p. 42) divided the genus Thaumantias into two subgenera, Cosmetira with two 

 kinds of tentacles, Thaumantias with only one kind of tentacles. The genus Cosmetira was again de- 

 fined by Hartlaub (1909, pp.82 89). It is characterised as Mitrocomida with 4 radial canals, 8 mar- 

 ginal vesicles, and with dwarf-tentacles between the proper tentacles. The genus comprises the follow- 

 ing species: Cosmetira pilosella Forbes, C. megalota (Maas), and the antarctic C frigida Browne; the 

 latter was described by Browne (1910. p. 35) from some badly preserved specimens, and only provision- 

 ally referred to this genus. 



Cosmetira pilosella Forbes. 



Thaumantias (Cosmetira) pilosella Forbes 1848, British Naked-eyed Medusae. p. 42. PL VIII, fig. i. 

 i. p. Laodice cruciata Haeckel 1879, System der Medusen. --p. 132. 



Euchilota pilosella Browne 1896, British Hydroids and Medusae. - Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1896. 

 p. 484. PL XVI, figs. 7, 7 a. 



