﻿April, 1857.] 



ELLIOTT SOCIETY. 



211 



OUNINA OCTONARIA, nov. spec. 

 PI. 12. Fig. 4-5. Also, PI. 4, 5, 6 and 7. Proceedings Elliott Society, vol. 1st. 



This species has somewhat the form of Cunina lativentris 

 Gegenb. It is rather pointed above. The muscular lobes are 

 eight in number. Tentacula and diverticula of the digestive 

 cavity, the same in number as the muscular lobes. Tentacula 

 alternately long and short. The concretionary capsules are three 

 on each lobe, that at its apex being largest. Each contains from 

 two to three corpuscles. Above each of these is a small, fleshy 

 tubercle, like that described and figured in the Larva found in the 

 bell of Turritopsis. The animal is little less than a third of an 

 inch in diameter. 



The digestive cavity is more than half the diameter of the disk, 

 and surrounded by a sinuous wall of a yellow color, forming diver- 

 ticula, which evince a tendency to increase in breadth as they 

 recede from the cavity. They preserve, however, a nearly quad- 

 rate form, their breadth bemg nearly equal to their length. The 

 mouth may be expanded until it equals the stomach in width or 

 contracted into the four lobed form exhibited in the drawing, pi. 7, 

 fig. 32 c. The spaces between the diverticula are quite open. 

 Across these, from one diverticulum to the next, stretches a band 

 of slightly darker color than the surrounding tissue, fig. 4, pi. 12. 

 Compare this with the chain of cells figured pi. 7, fig. 34, x. of 

 this volume. The eight muscular lobes are, more or less, gibbous 

 in appearance and are separated from one another by ascending 

 portions of the vail which reach the bases of the tentacula. On 

 their outer margins they bear, each, three concretionar}- capsules ; 

 the middle one of which is the largest and always contains two 

 corpuscles. The other two, smaller, are lateral and contain, each, 

 two or three small corpuscles. Over each one of these organs is a 

 small fleshy tubercle, like that figured, over the single capsule in 

 the young medusa, pi. 7, fig. 34, p. That, over the middle 

 capsule, is again the largest. The eight tentacula though differ- 

 ing but slightly in size, are still very distinctly different from each 

 other in this respect. The four greater ones are in length about 

 half the width of the disk — the four less are a little shorter. The 

 difference, however, is rather more distinct in their conical 

 pointed insertions, which project each, into a corresponding 

 diverticulum of the digestive cavity. This structure in the long 

 tentaculum reaches nearly as far inward as do the walls which sep- 



