Koellikerina multicirrata ( Kramp, 1928 )

Buecher, Emmanuelle, Goy, Jacqueline, J, Mark & Gibbons, 2005, Hydromedusae of the Agulhas Current, African Invertebrates 46, pp. 27-69 : 39

Koellikerina multicirrata ( Kramp, 1928)

Köllikeria multicirrata: Kramp 1928: 51 , fig. 24.

Koellikerina multicirrata: Kramp 1961: 85 .

Description: Single specimen. Essentially cylindrical, globular umbrella, as tall as broad; 7.3 mm in height. Exumbrella surface smooth. Mesoglea relatively thin. Velum broad. Peripheral canal and four radial canals present; no centripetal canals. Tentacles borne in eight clusters, each cluster arising from linear bulb at umbrella margin; four perradial and four interradial; confluent; 14 tentacles per cluster; short, solid and with a very slight terminal swelling. Secondary tentacles absent. Manubrium short, broad, quadrangular. Mouth simple, circular, without gastric peduncle, bearing four oral tentacles above mouth rim. Oral tentacles with distinct base, dichotomously branched, up to seven times, small, with terminal cnidocyst clusters. Without statocysts. Ocelli red-brown in colour, large, eight, each situated in tentacle bulb. Eight distinct, adradial gonads, situated on manubrium, horseshoe or V-shaped, with three distinct lateral folds.

Material examined: H5011.

Comments: see K. fasciculata .

Distribution: Scattered records from tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans; fairly rare. Previously recorded along the east coast of South Africa ( Millard 1975). Neritic.