Family CARYBDEIDAE Gegenbaur, 1856

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Introduction

The family Carybdeidae has a long and complicated nomenclatural history. The family was originally named by Gegenbaur (1856) with the spelling “Charybdeidae”, comprising only Carybdea marsupialis. This was confusing, because Peron & Lesueur (1810) established the genus Carybdea with C. periphylla (a coronate scyphozoan) listed first, not C. marsupialis. Agassiz (1862) used the family Charybdeidae (sic) to separate “Charybdea periphylla” from the Marsupialidae, which encompassed taxa with simple and complex pedalia now collectively grouped as the Cubozoa, i.e., the genera Marsupialis, Tamoya, Bursarius, and Chiropsalmus. Haeckel (1880) dropped the name Marsupialidae, and applied the name Carybdeidae exclusively to those taxa with unforked pedalia.

Mayer (1910) used the present spelling at the Order level, to refer to all species that we now group within the Cubozoa. Bigelow (1938) restored the Haeckelian classification, which has been generally followed up to the present day. However, when Werner (1984) elevated the family Carybdeidae to the order Carybdeida, that left a confusing redundancy, with the order and the family referring to precisely the same set of taxa.

Gershwin (2005a; 2005c) redefined the family Carybdeidae upon the removal of the "Carybdea alata" species complex to the newly established family Alatinidae.

Diagnosis

Carybdeida with gastric phacellae; with poorly defined rhopaliar niche covering scales; with nematocyst clusters on the pedalia; with unbranched tentacles.

Diagnosis References

Gershwin, L. 2005. Carybdea alata auct. and Manokia stiasnyi, reclassification to a new family with description of a new genus and two new species. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 51(2): 501-523 [521]

General References

Agassiz, L. 1862. Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America. Second monograph. In five parts — Pt. I Acalephs in general. Pt. II Ctenophore. Pt. III. Discophorae. Pt. IV. Hydroidae. Pt. V. Homologies of the Radiata. Boston, London : Little Brown, Trubner Vol. IV i-viii, 380 pp. + (1-10), pls 20-35.

Bigelow, H.B. 1938. Plankton of the Bermuda Oceanographic Expeditions. VIII. Medusae taken during the years 1929 and 1930. Zoologica (New York) 23(part 2)(5-9): 99–189, text-figs 1–23

Gegenbaur, C. 1856. Studien uber organisation und systematik der Ctenophoren. Archiv für Naturgeschichte 22(1): 163-205, pls 7-8

Haeckel, E. 1880. System der Acraspeden. Zweite Halfte des System der Medusen. Jena : G. Fischer.

Mayer, A.G. 1910. Medusae of the World. Vol. 1 and 2, The Hydromedusae. Vol. 3, The Scyphomedusae. Washington, D.C. : Carnegie Institution 735 pp., 76 pls. [reprinted by A. Asher & Co., 1977]

Péron, F. & Lesueur, C.A. 1810. Tableau des caractères génériques et spécifiques de toutes les espèces de méduses connues jusqu'à ce jour. Annales du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. Paris 14: 325–366

History of changes