The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 01 (of 10)Hickson, Sydney J. (Sydney John)
Science
The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 01 (of 10)
Hickson, Sydney J. (Sydney John)
Animals
_Allopora_ is difficult to separate from _Stylaster_, but the species are
usually more robust in habit, and the ampullae are not so prominent as they
are on the more delicate branches of _Stylaster_. It occurs at depths of
100 fathoms in the Norwegian fjords. A very large red species (_A.
nobilis_) occurs in False Bay, Cape of Good Hope, in 30 fathoms of water.
In this locality the coral occurs in great submarine beds or forests, and
the trawl that is passed over them is torn to pieces by the hard, thick
branches, some of which are an inch or more in diameter.
_Astylus_ is a genus found in the southern Philippine sea in 500 fathoms of
water. It is distinguished from _Stylaster_ by the absence of a style in
the gastropore.
_Cryptohelia_ is an interesting genus found both in the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans at depths of from 270 to about 600 fathoms. The cyclosystems
are covered by a projecting lid or operculum (Fig. 136, _l_ 1, _l_ 2).
There are no styles in either the gastropores or the dactylopores. The
ampullae are prominent, and are sometimes situated in the lids. There are
several gonophores in each ampulla of the female colony, and a great many
in the ampulla of the male colony.
{288}CHAPTER XI
HYDROZOA (_CONTINUED_): TRACHOMEDUSAE—NARCOMEDUSAE—SIPHONOPHORA
ORDER VII. TRACHOMEDUSAE.
The orders Trachomedusae and Narcomedusae are probably closely related to
one another and to some of the families of Medusae at present included in
the order Calyptoblastea, and it seems probable that when the
life-histories of a few more genera are made known the three orders will be
united into one. Very little is known of the hydrosome stage of the
Trachomedusae, but Brooks[322] has shown that in _Liriope_, and
Murbach[323] that in _Gonionema_, the fertilised ovum gives rise to a
_Hydra_-like form, and in the latter this exhibits a process of
reproduction by gemmation before it gives rise to Medusae. Any general
statement, therefore, to the effect that the development of the
Trachomedusae is direct would be incorrect. The fact that the hydrosomes
already known are epizoic or free-swimming does not afford a character of
importance for distinction from the Leptomedusae, for it is quite possible
that in this order of Medusae the hydrosomes of many genera may be similar
in form and habits to those of _Liriope_ and _Gonionema_.
The free border of the umbrella of the Trachomedusae is entire; that is to
say, it is not lobed or fringed as it is in the Narcomedusae. The
sense-organs are statocysts, each consisting of a vesicle formed by a more
or less complete fold of the surrounding wall of the margin of the
umbrella, containing a reduced clapper-like tentacle loaded at its
extremity with a statolith.
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