248 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
dissonema Haeckel, Aglaura prismatica Maas, Nausithoe punctata Kol- 
liker, and Diphyopsis appendiculata Agassiz and Mayer. These are 
all forms of very general distribution, and all either occur in the Atlantic 
or are represented there by exceedingly close allies. Of the thirteen 
genera common to both regions, not one is peculiarly Pacific; and the 
most characteristic Pacific forms, the Rhizostomae, were not found at 
all in the Maldives. This is of interest in view of their common occur- 
rence in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and off Zanzibar. (Van- 
hoffen, E. Untersuch. iiber Semaeostome und Rhizostome Medusen. 
Bibl. Zodl., bd. 1, heft 3, 51; and Chun, Beitrag. Zum. Kentniss dst 
Afric. Medusen, etc., Mittheil. Nat. Mus. Hamburg, jahrg. 13, p. 5, 
1896.) 
If we turn now to the Tortugas in the tropical Atlantic (Mayer, A. G., 
Bull. Mus. Comp. Zodl., vol. 37, no. 2), we find they have in common 
with the Maldives the following fifteen genera: Aeginella, Aglaura, Bou- 
gainvillia, Dipurena, Gonionemus, Liriope, Oceania, Aurelia, Nausithoe, 
Diphyopsis, Physalia, Porpita, Beroe, Bolina, and Ocyroe. Of these, 
however, four only are represented by identical or even by exceedingly 
closely allied forms; these are Dipurena fragilis, Aeginella disso- 
nema Haeckel, Aglaura hemistoma Haeckel, and Nausithoe punctata 
Kolliker. 
A similar comparison with the Mediterranean shows twenty-one genera 
in common, but only two species, Aeginella dissonema Haeckel and 
Nausithoe punctata Kolliker; with two more, Rhopalonema typicum 
Maas and Aglaura prismatica Maas, represented by very closely allied 
forms. With the exception of the new genus Timoides, every genus 
found in the Maldives is well known in the Atlantic, and the following 
typically Atlantic genera, not recorded from the Pacific, were taken in 
the Maldives. These are Berenice, Turritopsis, and Ocyroe. 
General Conclusions. 
The Medusa fauna of the Maldives shows a very general resemblance 
to that of the Tortugas in the Atlantic and Fiji in the Pacific, as shown 
by the large number of genera which they possess in common. But the 
fact that very few of these genera are represented by identical species, 
and, still more important, that all such identical species are forms well 
known to be of very wide distribution throughout the tropical waters 
of the globe, is good evidence that this Maldive fauna has no recent rela- 
tionship to either of the other areas. The general resemblance of the 
