Species Carybdea xaymacana Conant, 1897

Museums

Regional Maps

• Carybdea xaymacana Conant, F.S. 1897. Notes on the Cubomedusae (an abstract). Johns Hopkins University Circulars 132: 8–10, fig. 8 [8].

Distribution

States

Queensland, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Belize, Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico

Ecological Descriptors

Carnivorous, estuary, marine, pelagic.

Diagnosis

IDENTIFICATION. Body small to medium (about 2-3 cm tall), with heart-shaped rhopaliar niche ostia, scalpel-shaped pedalia, and epaulette-like phacellae. The velarial canals are 2 per octant, with the adperradial typically being much less branched than the adinterradial. The South Western Australian form of C. xaymacana has statoliths of a similar shape to C. rastonii, i.e., rounded pentagonal shape, broad and dome-shaped, or thick, kidney-bean-shaped, depending on one’s perspective. The tentacular nematocysts of the southwestern Australian form are of two types: 1) large club-shaped microbasic euryteles, range 26-37 x 12-15 and 2) small oval isorhizas, 9-12 x 5-7 The tentacular euryteles of the Caribbean form are about the same size (29-33 x 12-15 but have a much finer tubule; isorhizas could not be found.

Diagnosis References

Gershwin, L. 2005. Taxonomy and phylogeny of Australian Cubozoa. Unpublished PhD thesis. School of Marine Biology and Aquaculture, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD. 221 pp. 49 pls [112]

History of changes