(Péron and Lesueur, 1809)

Description
Umbrella hemispherical; jelly in upper part moderately thick, thin at sides [Eirene viridula ]. Velum narrow, ca 1/10 bell radius.
Stomach short, situated on elongate conical gastric peduncle which reaches beyond umbrella margin; with four basal projections at entrances to radial canals; mouth having four long lips with crenulate margins [E.viridula-female-habitus ].
The four radial canals and ring canal narrow. With excretory pores on large papillae projecting into subumbrellar cavity and leading from ring canal opposite base of each marginal tentacle.
Gonads on radial canals limited to subumbrellar disc, not extending onto gastric peduncle [E.viridula-female-habitus ]; extending from near base of peduncle almost to ring canal; straight or slightly sinuous, without median furrow.
Up to 70+ short marginal tentacles of rather unequal lengths, with conical bases. Lateral and marginal cirri absent. Up to 50+ closed marginal vesicles each with 1-4 concretions.
Young specimen E.viridula-young-habitus

Size
Diameter of umbrella usually up to ca 30 mm, occasionally larger.

Colour
Colourless except for greenish tinge on stomach.

Ecology
Off Plymouth recorded July-December, most commonly September-October; and 'in more northerly waters in late summer and autumn' (Russell, 1953a).

Distribution in the North Sea
Northern North Sea, Skagerrak, recorded off E Scotland and Jutland.

World distribution
Medusae recorded in Europe from Jutland south along the NW coast of the European mainland to the N coast of France, and further south sporadically to the Bight of Central W Africa; common in Mediterranean Sea; also reported from Djibouti in Indian Ocean (Kramp, 1961), Gulf of Kuwait (Michel et al., 1986), near Amazon estuary (Alvariño, 1968) and Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea (Bouillon, 1984b).

[After Cornelius, 1995a]

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Cnidaria
Superclass Hydrozoa
Class Leptolida
Subclass Leptothecatae
Order Conica
Suborder Campanulinida
Superfamily Eirenoidea
Family Eirenidae
Genus Eirene
Species Eirene viridula

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Eirene viridula (Péron & Lesueur, 1809)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Oceania viridula | Péron and Lesueur, 1809
Geryonia pellucida | Will, 1844
Geryonopsis delicatula | Forbes, 1848
Tima willi | Neppi, 1909

Alvariño, A., 1968. Los quetognatos, sifonóforos y medusas de la región del Atlántico ecuatorial bajo la influencia del Amazonas. Anales del Instituto de Biologia Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico 39 (Serie Ciencias del Mar y Limnologia 1): 41-75, figs. 1-44.

Bouillon, J., 1984b. Hydroméduses de la Mer de Bismarck (Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinée). Partie IV, Leptomedusae (Hydrozoa-Cnidaria). Indo-Malayan Zoology 1: 25-112.

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.

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

Michel, H.B., M. Behbehani and D. Herring, 1986. Zooplankton of the western Arabian Gulf south of Kuwait waters. Kuwait Bulletin of Marine Science 8: 1-36.

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.

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