Reproduction by longitudinal fission is habitual and frequent in this species.
B, a specimen undergoing fission (X 20).
In this way we may distinguish, first, vegetative reproduction, the result of discontinuous growth of the tissues and cell-layers of the body as a whole, leading to (I) fission, (2) autotomy, or (3) vegetative budding; secondly, germinal reproduction, the result of the reproductive activity of the archaeocytes or germinal tissue.
In some Syllids this posterior region separates off from the rest, producing a new head; thus a process of fission occurs which has been termed schizogamy.
Sooner or later, however, the scyphistoma produces free medusae by a process of transverse fission termed strobilization.