198 THE MEDUSAE. 



species, may reasonably be accorded generic value. I therefore retain two 

 genera in this family, Amphinema and Stomotoca. 



Amphinema Haeckel, 1879. 



Amphinemidae without gelatinous peduncle. 



Probably there are described five or six species which must be referred 

 to this genus, but it is questionable whether all of them are distinct. Three 

 have been described from the South Atlantic coast of North America, 

 and are recorded by Mayer under the names Stomotoca apicata McCrady 

 ('57), Stomotoca rugosa Mayer (: 00 a ), and Stomotoca australis Mayer (: 00 b ). 

 Inasmuch as the present collection contains several specimens which agree 

 closely with Mayer's latest figure of S. australis (: 04, pi. 1, fig. 9), I have at- 

 tempted to reach a decision as to the relationships of these three forms, 

 which present rather a confused case of synonymy. The earliest account of 

 any American species is that by McCrady ('57, p. 129) of Sapherda apicata, 

 since recorded by Agassiz ('65), Fewkes ('81), Brooks ('83), and Mayer (: 00 a ). 

 But Mayer (: 00 a ) contends that the S. apicata of Fewkes ('81) and Brooks 

 ('83) is in reality a different species to which he has given the name 

 S. rugosa, and that the Dinatella cavosa of Fewkes ('81) is identical with 

 S. apicata McCrady. 



Mayer, in distinguishing S. apicata from S. rugosa, lays stress on the differ- 

 ence in color, the tentacle bulbs of the former being purple or ochre accord- 

 ing to the sex. and of the latter brick-red, a difference which appears to be 

 fairly constant and on the more complexly folded lips of the latter; but in- 

 asmuch as McCrady describes the basal bulbs of his original specimens of S. 

 apicata as red, it seems doubtful whether Mayer's choice of names for the two 

 is correct. S. australis Mayer (: 00 b ) very closely resembles S. apicata, indeed 

 his figures of the two agree almost exactly, except that the former has defi- 

 nite brilliant red ectodermic ocelli at the bases of the rudimentary tentacles, 

 while in the latter there are no ocelli but only scattered entodermic pigment 

 granules; this difference Dr. Mayer assures me is a very constant one. We 

 cannot hope to reach any definite and lasting conclusion as to the inter- 

 relationships of these three forms until the hydroid stages of S. apicata and 

 S. australi are known; that of S. rugosa according to Mayer (: 00 b , p. 33) 

 is a Perigonimus much like P. minutus Allman ('71). In the meantime it 

 to retain all three names. In all these tonus, and in the .1. 



