MEDUSA OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS COLLECTED BY THE STEAMER 
ALBATROSS IN 1902. 
By ALFRED GOEDSBOROUGH MAYER, 
Director of the Marine Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution at Tortugas, Fla. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The following pages contain a description of the Scyphomedusae, Hydrome- 
dusae, Siphonophorae, and Ctenophorae collected by the Albatross while in the 
Hawaiian Islands in 1902 upon a cruise of scientific exploration under the direction 
of Dr. David Starr Jordan and Dr. Barton Warren Evermann. The collection is a 
small one, contained in 39 bottles, all of the specimens preserved in formalin. The 
preservative has destroyed the otoliths of the Hydromedusae; and the color of many 
of the specimens has faded, rendering specific identification difficult or impossible. 
According^ only those forms which are well preserved are described. 
When this collection obtained in the Hawaiian Islands is compared with those of 
Agassiz and Mayer in the Paumotu, Society, Fiji islands, etc., of Bigelow and 
Browne in the Maidive Islands, and of Maas off the west coast of Central America, 
it appears-that the majority of the Hawaiian forms are of wide distribution. For 
example, among the Scyphomedusse, Charybdea rastonii is found off the coast of South 
Australia near Adelaide. Atolla alexandri is found off the Galapagos and Marquesas 
islands. Periphylla dodecabostrycha is found on the deep ocean floor of both Pacific 
and Atlantic oceans, while Pelagia panopyra is found in the middle and western 
regions of the tropical Pacific. Indeed only one Scyphomedusa, Charybdea moseri , 
nov. sp., appears to be peculiar to the Hawaiian Islands, and this is represented 
in the Philippine Islands by a closely allied species. 
Among the Hj^dromedusae Solmaris insculpta, nov. sp., appears to be peculiar 
to the Hawaiian Islands, although it is represented in Samoa by a closely allied 
species. Rhopalonema typicum , found by the Albatross in station 3806, at a depth 
of 25 fathoms, between Erben Bank and Kaiwi channel, has been described from the 
Galapagos, Marquesas, Paumotu, and Maidive islands. Another Trachylina form 
is doubtfully identified from broken fragments as Solmaris punctatus, and is crudely 
figured and described by Quoy and Gaimard (1824, Voy. d l’Uranie, Zool., p. 564. 
pi. 85, fig. 4) from the Hawaiian Islands. Two specimens of this medusa were taken 
by the Albatross at station 3878, from a depth of 75 fathoms, off Molokini Islet, on 
April 14. 
A single B ougainvillia , believed to be identical with B. fidva , was obtained by 
the Albatross at station 3806, from a depth of 25 fathoms, between Erben Bank and 
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