Species Tamoya virulenta Kishinouye, 1910

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Regional Maps

• Tamoya virulenta Kishinouye, K. 1910. Some medusae of Japanese waters. Journal of the College of Science, Imperial University of Tokyo 27(art. 9): 1–35, 5 pls [7].

Distribution

Extra Distribution Information

Japan, in the Inland Sea, off Kogoshima and Innoshima.

Known only from type locality.

Ecological Descriptors

Marine.

Notes

Reported in Australia by: Williamson et al. 1996; Davie 1998.

Nomenclature:
Mayer (1910: 726) synonymized Tamoya virulenta Kishinouye, 1910, into Carybdea alata sensu Reynaud; one must assume that he did not see the figures published by Kishinouye, because they bear a similarity to his own figures of Tamoya haplonema. The name Tamoya alata was not used by Mayer, but I believe he was largely responsible for the confusion between the Japanese species T. virulenta, which has a most decided tamoyid morphology, and Carybdea alata, which most definitely does not.

Uchida (1929) applied the name Tamoya alata to the form that was previously described by Kishinouye as Tamoya virulenta, and also to what he thought was a juvenile of the same form, but was apparently a young Carybdea sivickisi. In the synonymy for Tamoya alata, he included all the species and varieties that had ever been referred to Carybdea alata Reynaud.

Uchida (1947) discussed the nomenclature of Tamoya alata, concluding that the Pacific form (i.e., Tamoya virulenta from Japan, plus an apparently different form from Arnhem Land) must be called Tamoya bursaria by priority. In fact, Haeckel's (1880) name T. bursaria was simply a new name for Lesson's (1829) Bursarius cythereae.

Kramp (1961b) referred most prior usages of the name (Stiasny, 1929c, 1935, 1937a, b; Uchida, 1929b; Rao, 1931a) to T. gargantua Haeckel non Lesson.

The species is probably in the 'Morbakka' group, common in Australian waters, which superficially resembles the Atlantic Tamoya, but differs from it as follows: Tamoya has vertical phacellae, whereas Morbakka lacks them completely; Morbakka has rhopaliar horns and perradial lappets, whereas both structures are lacking in Tamoya; the nematocysts are completely different between the two groups (see Gershwin, 2006 Nematocysts of the Cubozoa).

Sting

Sting Notes:
According to Kishinouye, “This species is known among fishermen as "hikurage," which means fire medusa or inflaming medusa, so named from the fiery sting.”

Misidentifications

Tamoya virulenta is often reported from coastal Queensland and New South Wales waters. However, these are mistaken reports that actually refer to Morbakka fenneri or one of its local varieties. Tamoya is not demonstrated to credibly occur in Australian waters.

History of changes