Mastigias sp.

Aspe, Nonillon M. & James, Samuel W., 2017, Pheretima monotheca, Zoological studies 55 (35), pp. 1-19 : 8-9

Mastigias sp. Lesson, 1830

( Fig. 1i )

Class: Scyphozoa

Family: Mastigiidae (Stiasny 1921)

Genus: Mastigias (L. Agassiz 1862)

Description: The exumbrella has very fine granulation. Mesoglea is firm with deep furrows between eight velar lappets in each octant. The oral arms terminate naked with club-shaped ends. Mouths not only present along the three edges of the oral arms, but also on their flat and expanded sides. There are numerous small clubs and filaments between the frilled mouths. Oral arms are about half as long as the exumbrella diameter, whereby the simple upper portion is one and half times as long as the three winged lower portion of the oral arm. Each arm usually terminates in club-shaped vesicles between mouths, with less than 10 canal roots in each octant. Rhopalar canals are slender and usually with anastomes ( Kramp 1961). It has no sting. The exumbrella diameter measures up to 80 mm.

Distribution and habitat: The specimen was collected from Sabah. The species inhabits the coral reef and coastal areas. M. papua Lesson 1830 is distributed in the Malay Archipelago, Japan, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Philippines and the Torres Strait.

Figures

Fig. 1. Jellyfish species collected in Malaysian waters. Cubozoan jellyfish; Morbakka sp. (a), Chiropsoides buitendijki (b); Scyphozoan jellyfish; Acromitus flagellatus (c), Catostylus townsendi (d), Cephea cephea (e), Chrysaora chinensis (f), Cyanea sp. (g), Lobonemoides robustus (h), Mastigias sp. (i), Phyllorhiza punctata (j), Rhopilema hispidum (k) and Rhopilema esculentum (l).