Chrysaora PeÂron and Lesueur, 1809

Gershwin, Lisa-Ann & Collins, Allen G., 2002, A preliminary phylogeny of Pelagiidae (Cnidaria, Scyphozoa), with new observations of Chrysaora colorata comb. nov., Journal of Natural History 36 (2), pp. 127-148 : 134

Chrysaora PeÂron and Lesueur, 1809

Comments. Chrysaora can be distinguished from other pelagiids as follows: in the medusa, the sense organs are located at the intersection of one subumbrellar pocket and two deep depressions, one depression funnelling from exumbrella, the other depression formed by overlap of adjacent lappets. The exumbrellar sensory pits are deep rather than shallow, as in Pelagia noctiluca (compare Russell, 1970: ®gures 42b, 50b), or absent as in Sanderia sp. Information on the sensory apparatus of P. X aveola and S. malayensis is lacking. In the medusa, septa terminate near tentacles rather than near rhopalia, as in species of Sanderia , or midway between tentacles and rhopalia, as in species of Pelagia . With the exception of Chrysaora sp. #1, the exumbrella has pigment marks that form a star pattern; this pattern is absent in species of Pelagia and Sanderia . The exumbrella of the medusa is not endowed with conspicuous warts, being either entirely smooth or minutely granulated. In contrast, the exumbrellar warts in species of Pelagia and Sanderia are conspicuous raised mesogleal bumps. In the medusa, gonadal tissues are contained largely within the gonadal pouches, where gonadal tissues of species of Pelagia and Sanderia are external. In the ephyra, the nematocyst batteries are arranged in a striking pattern of oblong patches ¯anking each rhopalium, with a corresponding ring of round patches on the exumbrellar surface of the body. This characteristic is shared by all species of Chrysaora for which the ephyra is described (Cones, 1969: ®gure 5; Kakinuma, 1967: pl. 3, ®gure 2; Russell, 1970: ®gure 53; plus Gershwin, unpublished notes, for C. achylos , C. fuscescens and P. colorata ). In contrast, no such pattern is present in the ephyrae of P. noctiluca ( Russell, 1970: ®gure 45) or S. malayensis ( Uchida and Sugiura, 1975) .