The general internal structure of the Idyia corresponds with that of
the Bolina and Pleurobrachia; it has the same tubes branching
horizontally from the main cavity, then ramifying as they approach the
periphery till they are multiplied to eight in all, each of which
gives off one of the vertical tubes connected with the eight rows of
locomotive flappers. Opposite the mouth is the eye-speck, placed as in
the two other genera, at the centre of a small circumscribed area,
which in the Idyia is surrounded by delicate fringes, forming a
rosette at this end of the body. These animals are exceedingly
brilliant in color; bright pink is their prevailing hue, though pink,
red, yellow, orange, green, and purple, sometimes chase each other in
quick succession along their locomotive fringes. At certain seasons,
when most numerous, they even give a rosy tinge to patches on the
surface of the sea. Their color is brightest and deepest before the
spawning season, but as this advances, and the ovaries and spermaries
are emptied, they grow paler, retaining at last only a faint pink
tint. They appear early in July, rapidly attain their maximum size,
and are most numerous during the first half of August. Toward the end
of August they spawn, and the adults are usually destroyed by the
early September storms, the young disappearing at the same time, not
to be seen again till the next summer. It is an interesting question,
not yet solved, to know what becomes of the summer's brood in the
following winter. They probably sink into deep waters during this
intervening period. The Idyia, like the Pleurobrachia, moves with the
mouth upward, but inclined slightly forward also, so as to give an
oblique direction to the axis of the body.[4]
[Footnote 4: Until this summer only the three genera of Ctenophoræ
above mentioned were supposed to exist along our coast, but during
the present season I have had the good fortune to find two
additional ones. One of them, the Lesueuria, resembles a Bolina
with the long lobes so cut off, that they have a very stunted
appearance in comparison with those of the Bolina. The other, the
Mertensia, is closely allied to Pleurobrachia; it is exceedingly
flattened and pear-shaped. This species was discovered long ago by
Fabricius, but had escaped thus far the attention of other
naturalists. (_A. Agassiz_.)]
EMBRYOLOGY OF CTENOPHORÆ.
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