Family DEPASTRIDAE Haeckel, 1880

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Introduction

The family Depastridae was originally proposed by Haeckel (1880: 376) as a subfamily of his family Tesseridae. Mayer (1910: 519), following Clark (1863) and Gross (1900), recognised two families, the Eleutherocarpidae and the Cleistocarpidae, with the genus Depastrum contained in the latter. Kramp (1961b: 300) treated the group Depastrinae as a subfamily in the family Cleistocarpidae. However, a genus called Cleistocarpus does not exist, so the family Cleistocarpidae is somewhat unteneble. Larson & Fautin (1989a: 1547) recognised a similar relationship as Kramp but elevated it by a step, i.e., the family Depastridae in the suborder Cleistocarpida; this convention has been adopted herein.

In the Depastridae, only Stenoscyphus inabai has been reported in Australian waters.

Diagnosis

Cleistocarpida without well defined marginal lobes; anchors small, simple; abaxial secondary tentacles with glandular pads; peduncle with four longitudinal muscles, and one or four chambers, or four in part.

Diagnosis References

Larson, R. J., & Fautin, D. G. 1989. Stauromedusae of the genus Manania (=Thaumatoscyphus) (Cnidaria, Scyphozoa) in the northeast Pacific, including descriptions of new species Manania gwilliami and Manania handi. Canadian Journal of Zoology 67: 1543-1549 [1547]

General References

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]

History of changes