Hello,
I am studying a zooplancton sample collected in the North of Corsica Island (Western Mediterranea) and I observed this organism that I am not able to identify. I guess it is a Cnidaria but I don't have a clue about the specie it could belong to. Is it a Siphonophorae ? An early stage of a Medusa ?
If you have any idea or suggestion, please let me know.
Thank you very much in advance.
Can you send another clear pics of both dorsal and ventral sides. Did you see any bioluminescence?
I think it wiil be difficult to identify based on this picture, unless maybe someone very familiar with the local fauna.
In any case, I don´t think it is a planktonic Cnidaria. Maybe a piece of a skeleton?
To me it looks also more like chitin than soft tissue of a cnidarian species. Maybe something like a crustacean mandibula.
I think it is a piece of broken hydrotheca from benthic Thecatae polyp.
It is an empty hydrotheca (the hydranth is lacking) of a benthic hydrozoan from the family Aglaopheniidae; perhaps a species of Aglaophenia.
Thank you so much to all of you, your answers help me a lot !
A little late but yeah it looks like a hydrotheca possibly related to Aglaophenia. I've recently done some drawings of the ones in the central Pacific.