378 THE WHITE PELAGIA. 



THE WHITE PELAGIA. 



Two days after the capture of the Chrysaora, I 

 obtained, in the bathing-pool near the same spot, a 

 species of Pelagia. The disk is about an inch wide. 

 The projecting lobes of the umbrella give it, when 

 expanding, a hexagonal form. There are eight eyes, 

 as in the preceding species ; but only the same num- 

 ber of tentacles, instead of twenty four ; these organs 

 are white. The peduncle divides into furbelows pro- 

 portionally lower down, and the furbelows themselves 

 are much more simple, and extend only to about two 

 inches in length. The ovaries are not purple, nor 

 are the tentacles or the disk tinged with rose-colour ; 

 the whole animal being colourless, except for the 

 whiteness which arises from the imperfect trans- 

 parency of the membranes. The umbrella, however, 

 is studded with minute and scarcely perceptible red- 

 dish warts. 



Messrs. M' Andrew and Forbes have described and 

 figured (Annals N. H. 1847, p. 390) a species of 

 Pelagia (P. cyanellaj, which they met with on the 

 Cornish coast. It is possible that the animal above 

 described may have been a very young specimen of 

 the same species ; though the differences are great, 

 not only in size and colour, but also in form and pro- 

 portions. The umbrella in their P. cyanella forms 

 almost a perfect globe, but in my individual less than 

 a hemisphere, resembling in shape that of the Ghry- 

 saora (See Plate XXVII.) It would be rash, however, 

 to constitute a species on a single specimen ; and 

 hence I leave the matter for future investigation. 



