Marine Species Identification Portal : Aequorea forskalea

Péron and Lesueur, 1809

Description
Adult umbrella large; saucer shaped, thick in centre, gradually thinning towards margin. Stomach usually half as wide as disc. Radial canals usually 60-80, but sometimes fewer or up to 160; with gonads along almost their whole length.
Tentacles usually fewer than radial canals but varied from half to twice as many. Marginal bulbs few, scattered; tentacle bulbs elongate-conical [A.forskalea-marg ]; excretory pores on short papillae; 5-10 statocysts between adjacent radial canals. [After Kramp, 1961, and Russell, 1970b].

Size
Umbrella up to ca 175 mm across.

Ecology
Reproductive season unclear owing to difficulties of identification.

Depth range
Coastal to offshore.

Distribution in the North Sea
Not reported from the North Sea; might enter the SW North Sea from the eastern Channel.

World distribution
Probably throughout Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Oceans in all suitable temperate to tropical waters, occurring occasionally even in mid-ocean (e.g. W of Azores, in Kramp, 1961: 205; Pagès, 1991). In Atlantic Ocean said to occur N to Norwegian Sea. [After Kramp, 1961, and Russell, 1970b].

Remark
Russell, 1953a described developmental details of the meduse in relation to bell diameter.

[After Cornelius, 1995a]

Aequorea forskalea