An Interesting Young Velella in the Plymouth Plankton

Extract

On 2 February 1943, after some very fierce south-westerly storms, a curious object was found in the inshore plankton which proved to be the ‘float’ of a very young Velella in the Rataria stage. In order to be certain of its identity some small complete Velellas were compared. These were kindly sent by Miss Delap of Valencia, to whom I am much indebted. They ranged from 1.5 to 2 mm. across and were very similar to the young forms described and figured by Huxley (1858), who identified them with the Rataria of Eschscholz (1829). In this stage the float is growing and may already have the crest, a soft, much higher structure, projecting above it. In order to see the float clearly one of the Irish specimens, 2 mm. across, was macerated in 10% caustic potash, the float separating out and proving to be exactly similar to the Plymouth specimen.

The peculiar structure of this float and the fact that the available figures of the Rataria of similar size show only the external features make a short note desirable, for in the existing figures one cannot be certain of the exact extent and position of the float. So difficult was it to decipher that, although it seemed very probable that we had the float of a Velella, it was not possible at first to be certain.