64 LIZZIA OCTOPUNCTATA. 



Genus XV. Lizzia, Forbes (1846). 



Umbrella spherical or campanulate ; ovaries in the form of four lobes, on the 

 sides of the short peduncle; margin of the umbrella with eight unequal, compound, 

 tentacular bulbs, all tentaculiferous, the four larger opposite the four radiating, 

 simple, gastric vessels ; stomach shorter than the sub-umbrella ; mouth vt^ith four, 

 simple, or ramifying tentaculated lips. 



I founded this genus for the reception of the remarkable Medusa described and figured 

 by Sars under the name of Cytceis {f) octopunctata. I had previously referred it to Hippo- 

 crene (i. e. Bougainvillea), and had been followed in such reference by Lesson, but the discovery 

 of several true Bougainvillea with four fascicles of tentacles, and of more than one form with 

 eight fascicles, indicated the propriety of separating the two types, and of assigning each a 

 generic value. Further observations have rendered it probable that the one genus produces 

 its young by gemmation symmetrically, and the other unsymmetrically, which difference, if 

 constant, would of itself be sufficient to induce a generic separation of the two groups. 



1. Lizzia octopunctata (sp.), Sars (1835). 

 Plate XII, Fig. 3. 



Synonyms. Cytceis {?) octopunctata. Sars, Besk. og Jagt., p. 28, pi. 6, f. 14 



(1835), and Fauna Littoralis Norwegise, 

 t.iv,figs. 7-13 (1846). 

 Hippocrene octopunctata. Forbes, Annals of Nat. Hist., vol. vii, 



p. 84 (1841). 

 Bougainvillea octopunctata. Lesson, Acalephes, p. 292 (1843). 



Among the many important discoveries which have rewarded the patient observation of 

 Sars, that of the power of Medusae to reproduce by gemmation is not the least significant. 

 The animal now to be described was that in which the Norwegian naturalist met with the 

 phenomenon. Hitherto it has been found only on the coasts of Scandinavia ; I have now 

 the pleasure of making it known as a member of the British Fauna. To add a new form, 

 even though of little interest, in a class with so few recorded native members as the Acalephse, 

 is a pleasure ; much more so, to increase our lists with one of such curious physiological 

 import as the Li%%ia octopunctata. 



This little Medusa — ^it is scarcely a quarter of an inch in length — swarms in the bays of 

 the eastern and western coasts of Zetland. I have not met with it elsewhere. Its umbrella is 

 sub-globose or elongato-convex, smooth, transparent, and colourless. On the margin there 

 are eight, jet-black, triangular ocelli, foiir of which are larger than the other four. All are 

 compound, being composed of the united bulbs of several tentacula. Three of those organs 



