44 The Philippine Journal of Science 1021 
basis for reducing L. mayeri and we must await a reexamination 
of the type to settle this unpleasant tangle. It was to avoid 
another such situation that I refrained from giving a new speci- 
fic name to our common Manila Bay Cotylorhizoides. 
Lobonema mayeri is one of the commonest jellyfishes of Ma- 
nila Bay, being present at intervals from May to September of 
every year, and perhaps at other times. It is the largest, most 
striking, and most beautiful jellyfish of the bay. 
Its colors vary between wide limits. Some specimens are uni- 
form opaque white; others show increasing amounts of pink and 
purple in gonads and mouth arms. The Manila Bay specimens 
never seem to reach the brilliance of color characteristic of those 
of Malampaya Sound. Several specimens were noted, however, 
In which the peripheral canal system was picked out in deep pur- 
plish blue. 
The very thin stomach floor protrudes from the subgenital 
ostia in life. The tentacle-like lappets are entirely noncontrac- 
tile. The bell is somewhat less than a hemisphere in relaxation, 
and considerably more than a hemisphere in contraction. The 
lappets undergo continuous beating movements due to the alter- 
nate contraction and relaxation of the bell. At complete relaxa- 
tion they lie extended backward over the upper part of the mouth 
arms. On contraction of the bell they are drawn forward and 
inward, and on relaxation are thrown outward and finally come 
to rest extended backward as before. 
The little Carangid fishes are always present in great numbers 
in and around these medusse apparently suffering no harm from 
the heavily armed mouth-arm appendages. The mouth arms (in 
the region of the mouths, and mouth-arm filaments) are able to 
administer a most unpleasant but not serious sting. It raises 
a welt, white at first, later becoming red, which disappears in a 
short time, a few hours at the most. The arm clubs, which are 
rather large, are invisible in the water. 
Lobonema smithii Mayer, 1910. 
Lobonema smithii Mayer, Medusae of the World 3 (1910) 688, figs. 
417, 418; Pub. Carnegie Inst. Washington 212 (1915) 196. 
As stated above, this species was based on material from Manila 
Bay collected by the Albatross. Since then no specimens agree- 
ing with Mayer’s description have been found and it seems prob- 
able, for reasons given above, that there is a single species of 
Lobonema, L. smithii, the diagnosis of which would therefore be 
changed to admit the forms described by me under the name 
L. mayeri. 
