Phacellophora sp., 1835

Estrada-González, Mariae C., Agüero, José & Mendoza-Becerril, María A., 2023, Medusozoans from the Mexican Pacific: a review based on historical literature and recent observations, Journal of Natural History 57 (1), pp. 784-853 : 812-813

Phacellophora sp.

( Figure 3H )

Material examined

1, medusa; Guadalupe Island, Baja California , 29.118°N, 118.274°W; photograph .

Identification (after Mayer 1910; Jarms and Morandini 2019)

Umbrella flat, with a slight dome-shaped aboral apex; umbrellar margin with pointed lappets. Oral arms curtain-shaped with several folds. Medusa colourless to white.

Distribution

It has been recorded from the coast of Baja California ( Abboud et al. 2018).

Remarks

The record of Phacellophora sp. comes from an underwater photograph, so the morphological details related to the texture of the exumbrella, the position of the radial canals, and the arrangement of the structures of the umbrellar margin were not observed. It is not possible to give a species-level identification due to the poor amount of detail the existing photograph offers, as well as cryptic diversity within the genus ( Moura et al. 2022). More studies based on integrative taxonomy are needed to define the lineages of this genus.

Figures

Figure 3. (A, B) Linuche sp.: A, Stephanoscyphistoma exoskeleton; B, aboral view. (C–E) Lobonemidae sp. indet.: C, umbrella; D, oral arms; E, umbrellar margin with rhopalium (square). (F, G) Stomolophus sp. 2: F, umbrella; G, oral arms. H, Phacellophora sp.: medusa. Scale bars: A, B=–500 μm. Photographs were taken by Oscar Peña (F) and Javier González (Sociedad Cooperativa Abuloneros y Langostero) (H).