48 bulletin: museum of comparative ZOOLOCtY. 



of the 4 main radial canals near to their point of juncture with the proboscis. 

 Each of these stolons gives rise to a number of medusa buds. The medusae 

 become free and thus the species is perpetuated. The proboscis is of a decided 

 sacre-green, and the entoderm of the basal bulbs of the tentacles is brown. A 

 number of specimens of this medusa were found at the Tortugas:, Florida, in 

 June. A single specimen was found by Brooks at Beaufort, North Carolina. 

 Brooks considered it to be an asexual form of Willetta ornata, and this explan- 

 ation may prove to be correct; we have not found the sexual form of W. 

 ornata, however, at the Tortugas, and incline to regard it as a distinct species. 



The species differs fiom the common Willia ornata, A. Agassiz, of Buzzard's 

 Bay and Newjiort Harbor, in that the proboscis is far more slender, the nar- 

 row tubes branching off from the circular vessel end each in a single cluster 

 of nematocysts, instead of several clusters as in Willetta ornata ; and above all, 

 the possession of stolons bearing medusa buds separates this form from all 

 other known Atlantic species of Willetta. It is interesting to notice that 

 Huxley (1891, Anatomy Invert. Anim., p. 120, Figure 17) took a species of 

 Willsia (Willetta) in the north Pacific, in which medusa-bearing stolons were 

 developed at the point of bifurcation of each of the four main radial canals. 



LAODICBA, Lesson, 1843. 

 Laodicea neptuna, nov. sp. 



Figs. 50-52, Plate 20. 



Specific Characters. — The bell is a little more than a hemisphere, and is 2.5 

 mm. in diameter. There are 8 short tentacles with large basal bulbs, and 8 

 small rudimentary tentacle bulbs. The tentacles are thickly covered with 

 nematocysts and are usually carried coiled in a contracted bunch. A single, 

 large, black ocellus is found at the base of each tentacle. There are numer- 

 ous small nematocyst-bearing cirri upon the bell margin between the tentacles. 

 The velum is well developed. There are four straight radial tubes, the upper 

 regions of which, adjacent to the proboscis, are occupied by the gonads. The 

 proboscis reaches slightly beyond the velar opening, and the lips are sur- 

 rounded by 4 prominent clusters of nematocyst cells. The color of the 

 entoderm of the proboscis, tentacle bulbs, and circular and radial tubes is 

 pearly-white. The entodermal lamella of the bell is of a delicate shade of 

 green. This medusa was occasionally found at the Tortugas, Florida, during 

 July and August, 1898. 



