Fig. 79. Melicertum campanula seen
from above; m mouth, o o ovaries,
t t tentacles. (Agassiz.)
Melicertum. (Melicertum campanula Pér. et Les.)
A pretty Medusa, smaller and far more readily obtained than the Tima, is the Melicertum. ([Fig. 80.]) Its disk has a yellowish hue, and from its margin hangs a heavy row of yellow tentacles, while the eight ovaries ([Fig. 79]) are of a darker shade of the same color. This little golden-tinted Jelly-fish, moving through the water with short, quick throbs, produced by the rapid rise and fall of the disk, is a very graceful object. Its bright color, made particularly prominent by the darker undulating lines of the ovaries, which become very marked near the spawning season, renders it more conspicuous in the water than one would suppose from its size; for it does not measure more than an inch in height when full grown. ([See Fig. 80.])
Development of Melicertum and Tima.
Fig. 80. Melicertum seen in profile; natural size.