(McCrady, 1857)

Description
Umbrella bell-shaped; mesogloea uniformly thin [Turritopsis nutricula ]. Velum broad. Manubrium large, in transverse section cross-shaped; with vacuolated endoderm cells. Mouth with four simple lips with numerous sessile clusters of nematocysts along whole margin. Four radial canals and ring canal fairly broad; radial canals continued through endodermal masses to stomach.
Gonads in four pairs on interradial walls of stomach. Eggs developing to planulae on manubrium and in subumbrellar cavity.
Eighty to ninety solid marginal tentacles in single row, with adaxial ocelli on their bases.

Size
Umbrella 4-5 mm high and wide.

Colour
Manubrium bright red [T.nutricula-habitus ].

Distribution in the North Sea
North Sea and English Channel.

World distribution
Circum-(sub)tropical.

Remark
The hydroid is known under the name Corydendrium (see Russell, 1953a)

[After Russell, 1953a; Russell, 1955; Kramp, 1959; Kramp, 1961]

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Cnidaria
Superclass Hydrozoa
Class Leptolida
Subclass Anthoathecatae
Order Filifera
Family Clavidae
Genus Turritopsis
Species Turritopsis nutricula

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Turritopsis nutricula McCrady, 1857

Scientific synonyms and common names

Dendroclava dohrnii | Weismann, 1883
Clavula gossii | Wright, 1859
Oceania polycirrha | Keferstein, 1862
Turritopsis polynema | Haeckel, 1879

Edwards, C., 1968. Water movements and the distribution of Hydromedusae in British and adjacent waters. Sarsia 34: 331-346.

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.

Kramp, P.L., 1959. The hydromedusae of the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent waters. Dana Report 46: 1-283; 2 plates, 335 text figures.

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

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., 1955. Hydromedusae. Order: Anthomedusae. Families: Rathkeidae and Bougainvilliidae. Fiches d'Identification du Zooplancton, 54 (1955). Conseil International pour l'Exploration de la Mer, Kopenhagen.

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