Atolla wyvillei Haeckel, 1880

Gershwin, Lisa-Ann & Zeidler, Wolfgang, 2008, Some new and previously unrecorded Scyphomedusae (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa) from southern Australian coastal waters, Zootaxa 1744, pp. 1-18 : 3

Atolla wyvillei Haeckel, 1880

Material examined. TMAG K1105, Great Australian Bight, SA, FV Margaret Philippa, coll. Tas. Dept. sea Fisheries, Nov. 1984; one specimen (BD 72.4 mm). SAM H1043, Great Australian Bight, 33° 58’S 131° 22’E, approx. 120 Nm SW of Cape Adieu, trawled 1000 m, FV Saxon Progress, coll. D. Wheenan, Nov. 1989; four specimens. SAM H1044, Great Australian Bight, 34° 12’S 131° 27’E, approx. 130 Nm SSW of Cape Adieu, trawled 1210– 1089 m, FV Longva IV, coll. K. Gowlett-Holmes, 16.xii.1989; one specimen (BD 90.3 mm). WAM Z4627, North of Dampier, WA, 18° 30’S 116° 29’E to 18° 24’S 116° 29’E, 1280–1288 m, FRV Soela, coll. L. Marsh, 7.iv.1982; three specimens (BD 23.4, 26.2 & 30.0 mm).

Remarks. All three WAM specimens were retrieved from a midwater trawl, and are in poor condition. The only identifiable characters are the well-preserved coronal band and the protruding radial muscles. The other specimens are in slightly better shape, with the characteristic clover-shaped stomach and radial muscles plainly visible. Despite their relatively poor condition, the specimens match primary descriptions of A. wyvillei ( Haeckel 1880; Mayer 1910; Kramp 1961; Larson 1986b).

Atolla wyvillei has been reported previously in the Tasman Sea by Stiasny (1931b) and in southwestern Australian waters by Southcott (1982), but this is the first confirmed report of it in waters off South Australia and tropical Western Australia.