Species Cephea cephea (Forsskål, 1775)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Medusa cephea Forsskål, P. 1775. Descriptiones Animalium Avium, Amphibiorum, Piscium, Insectorum, Vermium; quæ in Itinere Orientali observavit Petrus Forskål. Post Mortem Auctoris edidit Carsten Niebuhr. Adjuncta est Materia Medica Kakirina atque Tabula Maris Rubri Geographica. Hauniæ : Mölleri 1-19, i-xxxiv, 164 pp., 1 map. [108].

 

Generic Combinations

• Cephea cephea (Forsskål, 1775).

 

Distribution

States

Queensland

Extra Distribution Information

In Australian waters, it has been reported from Queensland (Stiasny 1926; Kramp 1961) and Western Australia (Marsh 1998). In the summer of 2005–2006 a bloom of Cephea cephea was recorded at the Gold Coast, QLD (Gershwin pers. comm.). It has been reported from a variety of tropical localities from around the world, including Malaysia, Philippines, Japan, Saudi Arabia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IMCRA

Central Eastern Shelf Transition (39), Northeast Shelf Province (40), Northeast Shelf Transition (41)

Ecological Descriptors

Carnivorous, epipelagic, marine, neritic, planktonic.

 

Diagnosis

100–140 mm wide; large dome at apex, dome covered completely with about 30 large, conical, pointed warts; 80–90 marginal lappets, in each octant 8–9 large oval velar lappets between two very small, pointed ocular lappets; upper halves of the eight, stout mouth-arms nearly coalesced at base, lower halves forked and profusely branched; more than 100 long, tapering, pointed filaments; 5–6 inter-rhopalar canals in each octant; distinguished by the very deep rhopalar clefts, the long tapering mouth-arm filaments and the brown colour.

 

Diagnosis References

Kramp, P.L. 1961. Synopsis of the medusae of the world. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 40: 1-469 [352]

 

Notes

Cephea cephea was originally discovered by Forskål in the Red Sea, and described posthumously by Niebuhr.

 

General References

Kramp, P.L. 1961. Some medusae from northern Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 85: 197–205

Marsh, L.M. 1998. Hitch-hiking ophiuroids. pp. 393-396, 2 figs in Mooi, R. & Telford, M. (eds). Echinoderms: San Francisco: Proceedings of the Ninth International Echinoderm Conference San Francisco, 5-9 August 1996. Rotterdam : A.A. Balkema xxxii 923 pp.

Stiasny, G. 1921. Results of Dr. E. Mjöbergs Swedish scientific expeditions to Australia, 1910-13. XXX. Scyphomedusen. Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps-Academiens Nya Handlingar, Stockholm 62(2): 1–12, text-figs

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
		13-Aug-2013	MODIFIED