BIGELOW: MEDUSAE FROM THE MALDIVE ISLANDS. 259 
Mayer (Bull. Mus. Comp. Zodl., vol. 30, p. 166, plate 9). Mayer’s figure 
appears to be taken from an immature individual, and in his description he 
makes no mention of the form of the gonads, so it is possible that the two 
species may prove to be identical. Both are closely allied to Liriope scutigera 
McCrady (Proc. Eliott Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 1, p. 208, 1859), from Charleston 
Harbor, South Carolina. 
Liriope hemisphericus, sp. nov. 
Plate 4, Figs. 15, 16. 
The bell is nearly hemispherical, with rather thick walls. It is eight mm. 
in diameter and slightly more than half as high as broad. The bell cavity 
is flatter than a hemisphere. There are two kinds of chymiferous tubes. 
There are four radial canals, and alternating with these are four broad, arrow- 
shaped canals which arise from the ring canal and end blindly in the bell wall 
at about one half the height of the cavity. Corresponding to these two kinds 
of canals are two kinds of tentacles. The four opposite the radial canals are 
hollow, flexible, about as long as the bell is high, and ringed with nettle cells 
throughout their length. Alternating with these, and opposite the blind 
canals, are four others which are only slightly shorter, but are solid, stiff, and 
carried curved sharply outward. Instead of being ringed, they bear a series of 
clusters of nettle cells on their centripetal surfaces (Plate 4, Fig. 16). The 
cylindrical peduncle, which is very flexible, is nearly as long as the diameter 
of the bell, and so hangs far below the opening. Its distal end is prolonged 
into a pointed stomatostyle. The stomach is nearly cylindrical and the mouth 
bears four simple lanceolate lips which are usually recurved. The gonads are 
heart-shaped, rather narrow, and occupy the proximal half of the radial canals. 
They occupy hardly more than one eighth of the surface of the subumbrella. 
The eight otocysts, which are all similar, are arranged radially and interra- 
dially, the radials being at one side of the tentacles, the interradials directly 
above their bases (Plate 4, Fig. 16). This Medusa is colorless, except that the 
gonads are opaque whitish, and the nettle cells on the short tentacles Vandyke 
brown. 
Three specimens, December 26, Male atoll, near Male island, surface. This 
species differs in important particulars from all known members of that divi- 
sion of the genus Liriope whose adult members normally possess centripetal 
canals, in having only one of the latter to each quadrant, — a condition charac- 
teristic of the young of other species. In general appearance it most resembles 
Liriope tenuirostris Agassiz, from the Atlantic coast of North America. A 
striking characteristic of the species is the large size of the interradial canals. 
Although our specimens were sexually mature, it is by no means certain that 
the number of blind canals had reached its maximum. Studies on a species of 
Olindias from Bermuda have shown a condition in which the number of these 
canals and of the tentacles nearly doubles with the increase in size of the Me- 
VOL. XXXIX. — NO. 9 2 
