Family PERIPHYLLIDAE Haeckel, 1880

Museums

Regional Maps

Introduction

Two genera are usually recognised in the family Periphyllidae: Periphylla with 12 tentacles (three between adjacent rhopalia) and Pericolpa with four tentacles (one between adjacent rhopalia). Sometimes a third genus, Nauphantopsis, with 28 tentacles (seven between adjacent rhopalia), is recognised. To date, only Periphylla has been found in Australian waters (Gershwin, unpublished data).

Useful references include Kramp (1961), Russell (1970) and Larson (1986).

Diagnosis

Coronate scyphomedusae typically with a vaulted umbrella; with four interradial marginal sense organs and 4, 12, or 28 tentacles, in groups of equal numbers between adjacent rhopalia.

General 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

Larson, R.J. 1986. Pelagic scyphomedusae (Scyphozoa: Coronatae and Semaeostomeae) of the Southern Ocean. Biology of the Antarctic Seas XVI, Antarctic Research Series, Vol. 41. 59-165 pp.

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.

History of changes