(O.F. Müller, 1776)

Description
Umbrella tall thimble-shaped with small conical apical projection [A.digitale-habitus]; jelly thin; subumbrellar muscles strong; velum broad and well-developed. Eight straight radial canals an ring canal narrow.
Gastric peduncle slender, almost as long as bell cavity; manubrium small; mouth with four simple lips.
Gonads long, sausage-shaped, suspended from radial canals near base of peduncle [A.digitale-gonads ].
A single row of 80 or more solid smooth marginal tentacles, all alike. Eight free club-shaped marginal statocysts, each situated midway between adjacent radial canals on inner side of ring canal.
Young specimens: A.digitale-young-habitus

Size
Umbrella10-40 mm high and about half as wide as high.

Colour
Pink of varying degrees.

Ecology and depth range
Holopelagic; epi- to bathypelagic. Vertical distribution extensive, though rare in the uppermost surface layers and very deep water; in the southernmost area of distribution on the northern hemisphere, it occurs only in the intermediate and deep strata.

Distribution in the North Sea
North Sea, Skagerrak.

World distribution
W South Atlantic; North Atlantic; Arctic; Indo-Pacific.

Remark
Polyp stage absent.

[After Russell, 1953a; Russell, 1981a; Kramp, 1959; Bouillon, 1999]

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Cnidaria
Superclass Hydrozoa
Class Leptolida
Subclass Trachymedusae
Family Rhopalonematidae
Genus Aglantha
Species Aglantha digitale

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Aglantha digitale (Müller, 1776)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Aglantha rosa | (Forbes, 1848) Considered to be a variety of Aglantha digitale or a seperate species

Bouillon, J., 1999. Hydromedusae. In: D. Boltovskoy (ed.), South Atlantic Zooplankton, Vol. 1. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, The Netherlands, pp. 385-465.

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. and D. Damas, 1925. Les Méduses de la Norvège. Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra Dansk naturhistorisk Forening i København 80: 217-323.

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

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., 1981a. Trachymedusae. Family: Rhopalonematidae. Fiches d'Identification du Zooplancton, 165 (1981). Conseil International pour l'Exploration de la Mer, Kopenhagen.

Williams, R. and D.V.P. Conway, 1980. Vertical distribution and seasonal abundance of Aglantha digitale (O.F. Müller) (Coelenterata: Trachymedusae) and other planktonic coelenterates in the northeast Atlantic Ocean. Journal of Plankton Research, 3(4): 633-643.

No distribution map was available at OBIS the last time we checked. Retry now.

For further info about Aglantha digitale, you can also look up this species under:

You can continue searching for Aglantha digitale on one of these Web sites:

Fauna Europaea (animals) | IOPI (plants) | NCBI (genetic)

Google | Yahoo | MSN | Wikipedia