Koellikerina fasciculata ( Péron & Lesueur, 1810 )

Buecher, Emmanuelle, Goy, Jacqueline, J, Mark & Gibbons, 2005, Hydromedusae of the Agulhas Current, African Invertebrates 46, pp. 27-69 : 38

Koellikerina fasciculata ( Péron & Lesueur, 1810)

Melicerta fasciculata: Péron & Lesueur 1810: 353 .

Koellikerina fasciculata: Kramp 1939: 511 , 512; 1959 a: 112, fig. 98; 1961: 85.

Description: Two specimens from one station; one mature damaged, the other immature. Essentially cylindrical, globular umbrella, as tall as broad, up to 7 mm in height. Exumbrella surface smooth. Mesoglea slightly thick. Velum broad. Peripheral canal and four radial canals present; no centripetal canals. Tentacles borne in eight clusters, each cluster arising from small, kidney-shaped bulb at umbrella margin; four perradial and four interradial; up to 23 tentacles per cluster; short, solid and with a very slight terminal swelling. Secondary tentacles absent. Manubrium short, broad, quadrangular. Mouth simple, circular, with pronounced, short 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 dark red, minute, situated at base of each tentacle. Four distinct, perradial horseshoeshaped, much folded gonads, situated on manubrium.

Material examined: H5010.

Comments: Of the eight valid species of Koellikerina considered by Bouillon and Boero (2000 b), six are found in the Indian Ocean (Kramp 1961). These can be distinguished by their overall shape, the shape and size of the tentacle bulbs, and the number of tentacles and ocelli per bulb, as well as by the degree of branching and the point of first branching of the oral.Aside from K. multicirrata (below), the others have been reported from the coast of India ( Menon 1932; Nair 1951; Kramp 1959 c, 1965) or off Madagascar (Kramp 1965). These include K. constricta ( Menon, 1932) (pyriform bell with marked constriction; eight marginal tentacles per cluster; ocelli red-brown in colour, minute), K. elegans (Mayer, 1900) (dome-shaped umbrella; 3–4 stiff and upward curving tentacles per cluster; dark brown ocelli), K. maasi (Browne, 1910) (dome-shaped bell; 5 unequally sized tentacles per cluster; no ocelli) and K. ornata Kramp, 1959 c (conical umbrella; 11–13 tentacles per cluster; dark-red ocelli at tentacle base; two orange pigment spots per marginal bulb and single one at umbrella apex).

Distribution: Widespread but scattered in Mediterranean Sea and temperate waters of the Atlantic Ocean. There is some evidence to suggest that this species may be found in the waters of the north-west Pacific (http://www.china-fishery.net/fdis2003/ latin_list.asp?initial_value=KO). This is the first record from the west Indian Ocean. Neritic.