Gosse, 1853

Description
Umbrella saucer-shaped, thick in centre, gradually thinning towards margin.
Stomach about half width of disc. Radial canals 60-100; gonads extending along almost their entire length.
Tentacles more than three times as numerous as radial canals; with a few small marginal bulbs. Tentacle bulbs elongate, slightly laterally compressed, with excretory papillae [A.vitrina-margin ]. Statocysts usually 1-2 between successive radial canals, each with 2-4 concretions. [After Kramp, 1961, and Russell, 1970b].

Size
Diameter of umbrella in adult 100-170 mm.

Colour
Appearance reportedly violet-blue fluorescent (Hamond, 1957).

Ecology
Reproductive season: the medusa has been recorded in nearly all months in British waters (Russell, 1953a).

Depth range
Probably coastal.

Distribution in the North Sea
Known occasionally from Belgium (Rappé, 1989), W off Jutland and Helgoland.

World distribution
Probably widespread around the British Isles; like Aequorea forskalea, sparse around mainland Scotland (Fraser, 1972).

[After Cornelius, 1995a]

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Cnidaria
Superclass Hydrozoa
Class Leptolida
Subclass Leptothecatae
Order Conica
Suborder Campanulinida
Superfamily Campanulinoidea
Family Aequoreidae
Genus Aequorea
Species Aequorea vitrina

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Aequorea vitrina Gosse, 1853

Scientific synonyms and common names

Campanulina acuminata | (Wright, 1858) = polyp?
Campanulina tenuis | (?) Van Beneden, 1866

Cornelius, P.F.S., 1995a. North-West European thecate hydroids and their Medusae. Part 1. Synopses of the British Fauna (New Series), No 50.

Fraser, J.H., 1972. The distribution of the Medusae in the Scottish area. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (B) 74(1): 1-25.

Hamond, R., 1957. Notes on the Hydrozoa of the Norfolk coast. Journal of the Linnean Society (Zoological Series) 43: 294-324.

Kramp, P.L., 1961. Synopsis of the medusae of the world. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 40: 1-469.

Rappé, G., 1989. Larger Cnidaria and Ctenophora from the plankton and pleuston in Belgian waters. Invertebraten van belgië. [Symposium, 25-26 November 1988] Brussels, Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique. (Pp. 15-18.)

Russell, F.S., 1953a. The medusae of the British Isles. Anthomedusae, Leptomedusae, Limnomedusae, Trachymedusae, and Narcomedusae. Cambridge University Press, 530 pp. 319 figures, 35 plates.

Russell, F.S., 1970b. Hydromedusae. Family: Aequoridae. Fiches d'Identification du Zooplancton, 128 (1970). Conseil International pour l'Exploration de la Mer, Kopenhagen.

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