Order CHIRODROPIDA Haeckel, 1880

Museums

Regional Maps

• Gershwin, L. 2006. Comments on Chiropsalmus (Cnidaria: Cubozoa: Chirodropida): a preliminary revision of the Chiropsalmidae, with descriptions of two new species. Zootaxa 1231: 1-42 [4]

Introduction

The branched-pedalia species have long been recognised as separate from the simple-pedalia taxa, but both groupings were widely regarded to be at the family level. However, when Werner (1973) elevated the cubomedusae to the Class Cubozoa, that left the Order Cubomedusae and the Class Cubozoa both defining precisely the same set of taxa; this was later corrected by Werner (1984), in elevating the families Carybdeidae and Chirodropidae to the orders Carybdeida and Chirodropida. However, while the elevation to the class level has been widely adopted, raising the families to orders has gone virtually unnoticed, perhaps because the correction was made in a German-language book chapter, thus being readily unaccessable to many workers and search engines.

The order Chirodropida was recognised by Gershwin (2005a, 2006b) and Gershwin & Alderslade (2006a), to include the families Chirodropidae and Chiropsalmidae. The order is attributed to Haeckel (1880) by the Principle of Coordination.

Diagnosis

Cubozoa with branched pedalia bearing numerous tentacles; with or without gastric
saccules.

Diagnosis References

Gershwin, L. 2006. Comments on Chiropsalmus (Cnidaria: Cubozoa: Chirodropida): a preliminary revision of the Chiropsalmidae, with descriptions of two new species. Zootaxa 1231: 1-42 [4]

History of changes