Hey jelly community!
I was wondering whether you could help me ID the species depicted in the attached photos?! The specimens have been collected in October and November this year in the Bay of Biscay and westernmost Mediterranean Sea mostly in the top 500 m of the water column. While the first 5 pictures show medusae, maybe semaeostome Chrysaora (?), the creature shown in picture 6 may be something completely different, maybe even a salp chain or pyrosome colony. Scales are included in most pictures. Generally, all of them were between 1.5 and 10 cm in size.
Looking forward to hear your suggestions!
Cheers - Florian
It’s a bit difficult to see details in the photos, but looks like juvenile Pelagia noctiluca (the juveniles are brown and those 4 oral arms and 8? marginal tentacles would match).
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.714503/full
Do you have more photos for Pic_6? And what’s the scale? Somehow reminds me of a salp stolon… (definitely not a pyrosome :-))
Thank you Vanessa! After consulting the suggested paper I agree that the medusae are likely Pelagia noctiluca juveniles. This makes a lot of sense as adult medusae of that species co-occurred in our catches.
For the blastozooid chain, I added another picture. The diameter of this glass beaker is like around 10 cm. Fully grown salps occurred in our catches too. Any further ideas to share?
Thanks!
Florian
I can give you some general information about the types of species you mentioned.
The first 5 pictures you've described as medusae, which are jellyfish-like creatures that belong to the phylum Cnidaria. Semaeostome Chrysaora is a genus of jellyfish that are typically found in coastal waters, and they have a typical bell shape with long tentacles. They are known for the bright colors, and the size of the bell can vary between 1.5 and 10 cm.
The creature shown in picture 6 is harder to identify without visual confirmation, however, based on your description, it could be a salp chain or a pyrosome colony. Salps are marine invertebrates that belong to the phylum Tunicata, and they are common in the open ocean, they have a long and cylindrical shape that can be up to 10 cm in size. Pyrosomes are also common in the open ocean, they are colonial tunicates which are formed by many individuals living together, they have a cylindrical shape and can be up to several meters in size.
I would recommend consulting a marine biologist or an expert in marine invertebrates for a more accurate identification of the species in the photos. They may need additional information such as location, depth, water temperature and salinity.
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