1908.] Records of the Indian Museum. 313 



I therefore assign even the Moulmein specimen, in spite of its eight 

 tentacles. Such identifications, however, no gonads being present, 

 can only be provisional. 



One of my examples from Mandalay exhibited a very remark- 

 able peculiarity, which can hardly have been more than an abnor- 

 mality. The specimen consists of a parent polyp with four buds. 

 The parent polyp had no trace of tentacles, although possessed of a 

 mouth ; but on one of the buds five well-developed tentacles were 

 present, while on the others they had commenced to appear. Other 

 parent polyps from the same pond had normal tentacles. 



The following table embodies all that appears to be known as 

 regards the distribution of Hydra in Asia : — 



Turkestan and Siberia . . ? Hydra fusca, Linn,, E. v. Daday, Zool. 



Jahrb., syst. Abth. xix, p. 480, 1904. 



Tibet .. . .Hydra fusca, J .mn. {vide supra). 



India .. ..Hydra orientalis, Annand. (Calcutta, 



North and Bast Bengal, ChotaNagpur, 

 Upper and Lower Burma). Hydra, 

 spp, (Bombay, United Provinces). 

 Hydra fusca, Linn. (Punjab). 



CeyIvON . . . . ? Hydra orientalis, Annand. (Colombo 



and Peredeniya), Willey, Spolia Zey- 

 lanica, iv, p. 185, 1907. 



Mai^aya . . . .i Hydra orientalis, Annand. (Penang). 



ToNOUiN .. ..? Hydra fusca, Linn., Richard, Mem. 



Sac. zool. France, vii, p. 237, 1894. 



Although a considerable number of records of the occurrence 

 of Hydra in the East now exist, the absence of gonads makes a 

 definite specific diagnosis at present impossible in most cases ; but 

 no form answering to the descriptions of Hydra viridis has yet been 

 found in Asia, while the production of eggs has only been observed 

 in the case of Hydra orientalis, which seldom produces them at all 

 and sometimes produces them in a degenerate condition ^ possibly 

 due to their not having been fertilized. This form, as I have 

 pointed out elsewhere (Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 1907, p. 28), is 

 very closely related to the Palaearctic species H. grisea, Linn. 

 (=■ H. oligactis, Pallas), of which it is possibly a tropical race. 



I Cf. Weltner, Archiv f. Nalurgesch., 73 Jahr. (i), p. 475, 1908. 



^^fe^ 



