68, k), absent in Chondrophorida and Cystophorida; they are contractile and resemble, both in appearance, structure and function, the umbrella of a medusa, with radial canals, ring-canal and velum; but they are without manubrium, tentacles or sense-organs, and are always bilaterally symmetrical, a peculiarity of form related with the fact that they are attached on one side to the stem.
The sub-umbrella invariably shows a velum as an inwardly projecting ridge or rim at its margin, within the circle .of tentacles; hence the medusae of this sub-class are termed craspedote.
The muscle-fibres arise as processes from the bases of the epithelial cells; such cells may individually become sub-epithelial in position, as in the polyp; or, in places where muscular tissue is greatly developed, as in the velum or sub-umbrella, the entire muscular epithelium may be thrown into folds in order to increase its surface, so that a deeper sub-epithelial muscular layer becomes separated completely from a more superficial bodyepithelium.
The circular system is developed continuously over the entire subumbral surface, and the velum represents a special local development of this system, at a region where it is able to act at the greatest mechanical advantage in producing the contractions of the umbrella by which the animal progresses.
One, the " upper " or ex-umbral nervering, is derived from the ectoderm on the ex-umbral side of the velum; it is the larger of the two rings, containing more numerous but smaller ganglioncells, and innervates the tentacles.
