Is this a Stauromedusae?

Wondering if this is a species of Stauromedusae ...

Any ideas?

cheers

Leander

Possibly? I think that it might be a benthic stage of a jellyfish, but I am just guessing.

Alex

I didn't realise that regular jellies had a benthic stage

Its what was in my mind when I took the pics, but searching the web the images of stauromedusae look a bit different

Here is one closed up when it caught something ...

thanks Alex - I've done my homework now

For some reason the penny hadn't dropped that the larvae settle out before becoming free-swimming ephyra Any references I can find to larvae/polyps/strobila seem to indicate they are quite small - millimeters?

cheers

Leander

Hey Leander, sure looks like a species of Stauromedusae(Staurozoa) to me. These guys have no medusa stage... and the polyps of Scyphozoans can be a range of sizes, usually less than 5 mm in width, ephyrae are typically 2-3 mm when they pop off. The only larvae you'll probably ever see is moon jelly planulae, they are very large and they brood them in their oral arms.

Those are cool shots, I'm pretty sure those are gonads just inside the mouth. The white spots should all be nematocyst batteries and it looks like this species almost has tentacles off the lappets. Awesome find!

Cheers,

Wyatt

Thanks Wyatt, Its pretty cool to think they are stauromedusae - I have wanted to see some ever since I found out the existed

In the full res photos you can see the tentacles. In fact the closed one caught a mysid (or similar), which was attracted to my lights, while I was taking the photos.

I have received some feedback from a stauromedusae expert in Japan who believes they are in the Lipkea genus. Some of these spp haven't been recorded since their discovery in 1893 - which I think makes it a pretty cool find

Leander

Well its official ! it was a stauromedusae .. and its been published as a new species in a paper by Carolina Zagal from UTAS !

SO EXCITING !!!

http://eprints.utas.edu.au/11818/

WooT !