Species Mastigias papua (Lesson, 1829)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Cephea papua Lesson, R.P. 1829. Zoophytes. In, Voyage Autour du Monde, Exécuté par Ordre du Roi sur la corvette de Sa Majesté, La Coquille, pendant les années 1822, 1823, 1824 et 1825 … par M.L.I. Duperey .... Zoologie. Paris : Bertrand Vol. T. II, Pt. II(2eme Div.) 155 pp., 16 pls. [122].

Generic Combinations

• Mastigias papua (Lesson, 1829).

Distribution

States

Queensland

Extra Distribution Information

Reported from northern QLD by Stiasny (1931a) and Kramp (1965a). Also reported from Fiji, New Caledonia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Japan

Ecological Descriptors

Marine, neritic, planktonic.

Diagnosis

Up to 80 mm wide, usually hemispherical, exumbrella with very fine granulations; gelatinous substance firm; deep furrows between the eight velar lappets (in each octant); mouth-arms about half as long as bell diameter, the simple upper portion 1 1/2 times as long as the three-winged lower portion; each arm usually, but not always, terminates in a club-like filament, triangular in cross-section; numerous small, club-shaped vesicles between mouths; less than 10 canal-roots in each octant; rhopalar canals slender, usually with anastomoses.

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 [359]

General References

Gershwin, L. 2007. pers. comm. (Numerous other species and varieties have been synonymised with M. papua, giving it a very broad Indo-Pacific distribution. It is possible that some of these species may prove to be valid upon re-examination)

Kramp, P.L. 1965. Some medusae (mainly Scyphomedusae) from Australian coastal waters. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 89: 257–278, pl. 1–3 (distribution)

Stiasny, G. 1931. Die Rhizostomeen-Sammlung des British Museum (Natural History) in London. Zoologische Mededelingen (Leiden) 14: 137–178, 9 text-figs (distribution)

History of changes