Family CYANEIDAE L. Agassiz, 1862

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Introduction

The family Cyaneidae contains three genera, Cyanea Péron & Lesueur, Desmonema Agassiz and Drymonema Haeckel. They all share the unusual character of having tentacles which arise from the subumbrellar surface some distance from the margin, rather than from the margin itself, as in most other medusae. This gives them a very unkempt appearance, looking like a flattish disk with a mop of tentacles underneath.

The three genera are easy to tell apart, with Cyanea having eight adradial clusters of tentacles in a U-shaped arrangement, and with both radial and circular muscles conspicuous on the subumbrellar surface; in Desmonema, the eight adradial clusters of tentacles are in a linear arrangement, i.e., straight across the lappets, and the subumbrella has only very fine circular muscles; in Drymonema, the tentacles are not grouped into clusters, and the subumbrellar muscles are similar to those of Desmonema.

Cyanea is well represented by probably numerous species in Australian waters, and there is one species of Desmonema known from isolated collections in South Australia and New South Wales, likely to be found in additional localities, especially along the southern coasts.

Diagnosis

Semaeostome scyphomedusae with marginal tentacles arising from subumbrellar surface at a distance from umbrella margin; with gastrovascular sinus divided by radial septa into separate branched pouches, which may or may not be connected by anastomoses; without ring canal; with four oral arms with much-folded lips.

Diagnosis References

Russell, F.S. 1970. Medusae of the British Isles. II. Pelagic Scyphozoa with a Supplement to the First Volume on Hydromedusae. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press 284 pp. [104]

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