THE J!IEDUS..E of the WOODS HOLE REGION
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CONTRIBl"T10NS FROM TII£ BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY or THE BUREAU OF FISIIERIES AT WOODS HOLE, MASS. THE j!IEDUS ..E OF THE WOODS HOLE REGION. 13y CI1ANLES vv, I-IA H CHTT, Prokssor of7oo1oK,J'. Svracuse {/lli7'ersity. 21 CONTRIBUTIONS FRO&{ THE BIOLOGICAl. LABORATORY OF TilE HUREAL OF FlsHElm:S AT WOODS HOLE, MASSACHUSliTI'S, THE jIEDUS.E 01; THE WOO])S HOLE REGION. By CHARLES W. HARGITT, ProkHor (~/ X,)O!O(;y, ,))'1'<101.1'" Cni"a:,itv. INTRODUCTION. The present report f'onns one of' a ser-ies projected hy the director of the biological laboratory of the United States Bun~au of' Fbheric:--, the prirnarv oh,it'd lwill!! to aflord such a biological survey of the region as will bring' within l~a"y I'('lwh of students and working naturalist" a synopsis of tlw eharaeter and distribution of its fauna. The work which forms the basis of this pap.,!, was cluTied on during- t/;p summers of'HHII and l!102, including' also a brief ('olleeting recllllllais"alH'C during the early ,"'pring of' the latter year, thus l'nabling me to eomp!l'b' :l recor-d (If observations upon the medusoid fauna during' pvcry month of t.ho yl'i:lJ', with daily record" dUJ'ing most of the time. FOI' part" of th(',,(' l'l'l'ol'd,s during' lut.- fall aud winterI all! chiefly indebted to 1\11'. Viuul X. Edwanl", which it i,; a ph'aKlIl'p hl'I'P!ly to acknowledge, It is also a pleasure toacknowll'dge tlH' eordiaI1'oolH'l'atioll of' the Commissioner, Hon. Geol'g!'M. BOWf'I',~, and oj' Dr. H.:\t. Smith, dirl'l'!ol' of' th.' laboratory in lHOI andUI02. ¥o"t of' the drawing" have beell mad!' dir('l'tly from life II,\' th« writcr 01' IIIHlPr his personal direction, A few of those occurring ill tllf\ text have hpf'1I "opiH! 1'1'0111 various sources, due credit for tlw"e having I!pi'll girl'lI ill l'vl'ry '-111"1', ';0 far a,; know n. Since the publication of' "North Atuerieau A,-all'pha>" b.v A kx1tnd,'1' Agnssiz ill IH6;) no connected and systeruati« acr-ount of the llledu,;oid f:lIlua of the north eastern .Atlantic eoast has been undertaken. Various reports df'alin,l~' only inci dentally with this phase of the subject hare heNl made from tiIlW 10 till/(' hy Prof. A. E. Verrill, notable among these being that known [1'-; "The Invertebrate Fauna of VineyardSound," ill the Report of the United SbtlPs Fish Connnissiou for 1~7J; and a number of papet·s by .r. Walter Fewkes hnv« appeared in issul's 01' till' Bulletin of the Museum of' Comparative Zoology, des('1'ibing' new speci,-s lind incidentally giying some account of tbeir morphology. More reeent contl·j butions are several articles by Mr. A. G. Mayer, in conjunction with :\1r. A. Agassiz. dealing with various aspects of the subject, though not limited especially to tbis J'('giofl--' indeed, only touching it in a very general way. " 24 BUU,]'TIN OJ<' TR}; }H'Rl';AP OF FlSllERIES. 'While by reason of the IlPculiur interrelations of hydroids and mednsre the present puper may here lind there touch to a limited extent It phase of the subject included ill NHttiug'" s , Hydroids of the Woods Hole regi'Hl," it will not materially duplicate that work, but rather supplement and extend it. the two parts forming a fairly complete summary of the entire phylum, Hie Anthozoa alone excepted. The present paper will also include something in the nature of It synopsis of the develop mont ofrepre"elltatiH~fOI'lII-". together witl; data 118 to habitat, seasonal variations, etc, TIIP region covered will he about that already outlined by Nutting, namely within the Jilllibi of a single da,v'.'< cruise from the Fisheries Station: for example, Cape Cod andNantucket on the east, the Gulf Stream on the south, and Narragansett Bay or LOHg' Islnnd Sound on the west. The order of presentation will follow substantially that adopted by the present writer in tlH'. "Synopsis of the HydroTll('dusm, " recently published in the Auierieau Naturalist. which follows in general order and nomeuclature Haeekers "Sy.stem del' Medn"t'n,-, though without adlwnmec to that or any special authority, \.'XCI.'pt as noted ill the body of the pappI'. Whil« deploring the more 01' less chaotic condition of existing "ystems of taxonomy in relation to coelenterates. it has Hot seemed expedient to propo,.,e lmy rad ical \.'hange" at present, even if data we\'(' availuble for such all ullclertaldng, A }lrel'ptluisite thereto, and one Opt'll to students of the group enwywfwre,is the critlcul study of ontogeny, C nfortunatoly. thi,.,has not only heen lH'gleetpd ill too many ea"es, hut the tpndpney to devote :lttNltioll to a "iug-Ie phase of the subject, for example. the 1'/llb'uid, or 011 the ot her hand the IlIedu8fl, 113". perhaps indi I·eetly. cu ltivated the neg'led. It if' gTPatly VJ be desired that in t.he future 1PI','" emphasis lIe placed upon elaborate 1l1001OgJ'Hph" of "GYllIllohla,.,tic Hvdroids' or ., S.I'st'·!Il del' M"dusell," valuable it,,, tlwse have been. and more llpon llIoIlOgmph,., of l1yd romodusa-. or, in other word". 1II0nographie details of the (JIItogPIlY of species, const.iturion of g'I'IIl'ra, families, and orders, ine!wling also el'itieal data as to the YHril,tllll'fh'et.:-: of cuviromucut, nutrition, de Such 1ll11llogntph,., would afford final data from which it ('om.i,.,tellt and sciontitic taxouomv.- rnisrhtM 1)(' ..stablished. Excppt in .so far a,., 11l'I'PS"ar,Y in ordor to ohviut« amhiguity. little effort hn- heen dpyotl'd in the pre.-:pnt report to ddail." of sylloll,nll,\'. or to the unravcliujr of «outlicting cluitns of priority. dr, GENERAL ACCOUNT, Undor the g'PJlCl1tl title of "J\lerLusa'" ,tre included animals of a remarkable range of siz«, habits, disti-ibntion, and life history. In "he they ntr,v from less than a millimeter in dianwter in the ndult condition, it" in many of the Hydromedusre. lip to I'lIOI'mOIlS specimens of Scyplromedusn-, more than :2 meters in diameter and with tentaoles more than 80 mete)'s in length. One of tlw int,('l'esting anomalies associated with some of these uniuiul«: is that uotwithstanding their lal'ge size, no less than nH per cent of the entire mass is com posed of water, :-:0 that a specimen exposed upon a clean surfaoe to the de,~iccating influence of sun and air would, after a few hours, leave hardly sutlicient. organic matter to identify the place. Such heing the case it mig'ht not. he a .wholly.nuwar runted paradox to elt·tine a IHcdusa as organized and animated sea water, In hsbitrmost medusee are marine, though a few are known tooccur in fresh MEDUS.£ OF WOODS ROLl'; RIWION. 25 waters of inland lakes, Mo.-:t are free Hwimming at SOIlW time during' their lift' history, yet not a few aIllong both Hydromedusa- lind S('~"phOllledll";R' are p,,1' manently sedentary, SOllW as degeneratf' 8pOrOSI1<''', others :1S polyp-like forms such as the Lucernm-idre. In distribution they l'1tng(~ from a littoral to ll. pelagic life and from the surface to ~dl~-s:-;al depths. Under the head of Medusee is also usually included a group of animals of similar form and habib, though of somewhat doubtful structural atliu itie», numely, the ctenophores or ,. comb, jellies." Whil« admitting !i reasonable doubt us to their 1rue morphological relations, the ctenophore" nUlY "till he most couveniently lecogni%pd as a distinct class of nredusas and included within the present svnopsix, BmwI' species indigenolls to this region will be noted and briefly described. Concerning the ceonomic relations of medusa- vory little is known, That tbey sustain intimate gt'neral relations to the vuried forms of marine lift' can hardly III' doubted. Their vast. numbers, wide distrihut.ion, and HUI!'(' 01' les" lll'ti\'(' life haliit« 11[1 support. the gelwml inferenCE'. The wcll-kuown ('lises of conuuensa.lism exil'.tillg between tuedusn- [wd sevei-al species of tishes which follow them at times with more or less lwrsistell(:e, often taking refugr- in the frill" of the pendulous lobes of S"y!lho medusa-, and l'('Mistillg effort,; to ,o;eparate them, still further "ugge"t tile probabilitv. Some fishes a re said to feed upou the oral tentacles and lila rgi us, as well as tiH' larger tentacles of the umbrella, which they tear otl' at times with great vigor. Oft('n. however, the ruedusre reverse the operation and devour the fishes. 11 d()(,,, not ,"e('11I likply that lllpdui-ill' ..an afford any large IlWUS1l1'P of food for ti"IH',~ in gel1l'rnl. but .~f'vel'aJ ,"pc('ies of fish are knowu 10 fepd upon thew at times with great avidity. The horned dog,·tish,"·'jua],I,' '!l:imthiIl8, when tired arriving at Wood« Hol« HI the ,~pl'ing migration, in May, i-, said to feed Iarg'ely Oil «tenophores. (IL:\1. Smith.) TIlt' sUIl·tish,Jfohr mota, and also the file-fish, Alute,« .,doc);!ii, ban' been found by :\11'. Vinal gdwards to have fed entirely on ctenophores and ruedusn-. A" a special caso of mutualism between ji:;flf'S and medusm ruay he mentioned that of the young of the butter-fish, It/wlIIlill8 fn'ac!fI,f11ll8, found with lJadylol!,rtl'(f ij!lilHj!lI'£JIrJ'fi.