
Developed by ETI BioInformatics
Characteristics, distribution and ecology
Taxonomische classification
Synonyms and common names
Literature references
Images, audio and video
Links to other Web sites

Pagès, Gili and Bouillon, 1992 (whence details taken)

Large, hemispherical, recorded to ca. 400 mm diameter; infrequently reported. Umbrella slightly higher than wide, jelly thickest centrally; exumbrellar surface finely granular. Marginal lappets typically 4 double ones (8 in total) in each octant, triangular, pointed; rhopalar lappets 1/3-1/2 as long, narrow, pointed. Rhopalia 8. Mouth-arms fused basally for "somewhat more than" half their length; distal part of mouth-arms on three vanes, two outward and one inward, all with mouthlets on inner faces, directed downwards; distal regions of each bearing "several inwardly-directed, hooked-shaped, solid terminal appendages" (Haeckel, 1880, as Eupilema scapulare; Pagès et al., 1992) bearing many mouthlets; no mouth-arm clubs or filaments. Radial canals 16, continuing to margin (some perhaps indistinctly through network), with circular canal some distance from margin; finely anastomosed network peripheral, and broader network centripetal, to circular canal, connected to radial canals along whole length external to mouth-arm bases.
Coloration: "uniformly transparent excepting gonads and mouthlets" (Pagès et al., 1992), or with large blue patches about 1/5 from bell edge (specimens deposited in The Natural History Museum, London). Eupilema claustra, Haeckel, 1880, and Eupilema scapulare Haeckel, 1880, based on Indo-Pacific material, await modern assessment.

Eupilema inexpectata