Cephea, Peron & Lesueur, 1810

Aspe, Nonillon M. & James, Samuel W., 2017, Pheretima monotheca, Zoological studies 55 (35), pp. 1-19 : 7-8

Cephea cephea Forskåll, 1775

( Fig. 1e )

Class: Scyphozoa

Family: Cepheidae (L. Agassiz 1862)

Genus: Cephea (P è ron and Lesueur 1809)

Description: The colouration of the exumbrella is blue to purplish in live specimens, whereby the centre of the exumbrella is heightened and dome-like, surrounded by approximately ten large conical warts and several smaller pointed warts at the centre of the dome. It has eight oral arms and approximately 90 lappets at the umbrella margin. The distinguishing features of C. cephea are deep marginal lappets, eight arms that are stout and nearly coalesced at the base. It also has long tapering and brown oral arms ( Kramp 1961). The sting is barely perceptible. The exumbrella diameter is 150 mm and the length of the oral arms is 40 mm.

Distribution and habitat: The specimen was found stranded along the beach nearby a coral reef area at Kapas Island, east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The distribution of C. cephea includes Japan, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Philippines and the Malay Archipelago ( Kramp 1961).

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).