Species Pelagia noctiluca (Forsskål, 1775)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Medusa noctiluca Forsskål, P. 1775. Descriptiones Animalium Avium, Amphibiorum, Piscium, Insectorum, Vermium; quæ in Itinere Orientali observavit Petrus Forskål. Post Mortem Auctoris edidit Carsten Niebuhr. Adjuncta est Materia Medica Kakirina atque Tabula Maris Rubri Geographica. Hauniæ : Mölleri 1-19, i-xxxiv, 164 pp., 1 map. [109].

Generic Combinations

• Pelagia noctiluca (Forsskål, 1775). —
  Péron, F. & C.A. Lesueur 1809. Tableau des caractères génériques et spécifiques de toutes les espèces de méduses connues jusqu'à ce jour. Annales du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 14: 325-366 [Figures not published] [350]

Distribution

Extra Distribution Information

Cosmopolitan.

Ecological Descriptors

Carnivorous, epipelagic, marine, neritic, planktonic.

Diagnosis

According to Russell (1970): Exumbrella with medium-sized warts of various shapes; marginal tentacles with longitudinal muscle furrows embedded in mesoglea; up to 100mm in diameter.

According to Kramp (1961): Up to about 65mm wide; nematocyst warts on exumbrella very variable in size and number; colour very variable.

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 [329]

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. [72]

Notes

Reported in Australia by: QLD (Kramp, 1961a; Cleland & Southcott, 1965; Kramp, 1965a; Gershwin, unpublished 2000 Moreton Bay, 2005 Magnetic Island). NSW (Stiasny, 1931b; Ranson, 1945b; Cleland & Southcott, 1965; Kramp, 1965a). WA (Marsh & Slack-Smith, 1986). VIC (Fancett, 1986). Southern Australia (Coleman, 1979, 1981; Southcott, 1982). Australia unspecified (von Lendenfeld, 1884d: 266; Southcott, 1963b; Bennett, 1966; Edmonds, 1975; Williamson et al., 1996; Edgar, 1997, 2000). NT (new record). SA (new record).

Australian records of Pelagia noctiluca are likely to be erroneous.

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] [570]

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. [71]

History of changes