Chirodectes maculatus
| Chirodectes maculatus | ||||||||||||
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Chirodectes maculatus |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Chirodectes | ||||||||||||
| Gershwin , 2006 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Chirodectes maculatus | ||||||||||||
| ( Cornelius , Fenner & Hore , 2005) |
Chirodectes maculatus is a type of box jellyfish (Cubozoa) from the family of Chirodropidae. It is the only species in the genus Chirodectes Gershwin, 2006. The species was found on the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef over 40 km from the coast of Queensland (Australia). It is a strikingly colored species for the box jellyfish, the outside of the umbrella is covered with brown spots. Unlike the other types of box jellyfish, it could be a form of deep water.
features
The medusa has a maximum shade height of about 150 mm. The maximum diameter is 160 mm. The screen is more spherical in the side view, rounded square in the top view. The apex is slightly flattened. Parallel to the four edges, pits up to 9 mm deep from the apex up to about 15 mm from the pedal. On the sides there are two further longitudinal pits (per side), which roughly enclose the zone with the rhopalium. The exumbrella is conspicuously covered with brown, rounded spots that are more or less regularly strung in lines or other patterns. They are missing by a narrow zone around the Rhopalia . The screen gel is 10 mm thick in the perradial zones and up to 20 mm thick in the interradial zones. The velarium is relatively narrow and connected to the subumbrella in the perradial areas by a frenulum. The manubrium is an approximately square tube with a folded inner surface. It is about 140 mm long. Gastric cirrus is abundant. The pedal is max. 60 mm long, the tentacles can be about 1 to 1.2 m long when extended (determined from video sequences), but only 300 mm when they are contracted. The pedalium belongs to the type of compound pedalium, which consists of an outer tentacle and a tuft of tentacles. The tufted tentacles are arranged opposite one another around a central structure and covered by an unpaired outer tentacle, which sits at the end of a conical structure and is significantly higher than the other tentacles. There are about 15 tentacles per pedal. The Cnidom is not described by the first author.
Geographical distribution and habitat
Chirodectes maculatus was found up to only one place (in one specimen) about 40 km off the coast of Queensland (Australia), at about 16 ° S, near the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef . Since the region is visited relatively often by divers, the species is probably rare or does not normally occur in such shallow waters so close to the Great Barrier Reef. The first descriptors explain the find, which was collected in May 1997, with the passage of cyclone Justin a few weeks earlier. The cyclone had u. a. As a result, a certain species of fish from the genus Lethrinus , which normally lives in deeper waters of the continental shelf, penetrated into the coastal waters. Presumably the box jellyfish had followed its prey and thus also far from its actual habitat. The putative habitat of this species, the deeper waters of the continental shelf, is untypical for box jellyfish; most species live in the shallow coastal waters.
Poisonous effect
So far nothing is known about a poisonous effect of the nettle poison of the species. However, in view of the size of the species and the proven toxicity of the closest relatives, the first descriptors advise extreme caution. However, the actual danger posed by the species is likely to be very low. The species is very rare and usually does not occur in waters frequented by divers or bathers.
Systematics
The species was first described by Paul FS Cornelius , Peter Fenner and Russell Hore in 2005. In 2006 Lisa-Ann Gershwin recognized that the species should not be generically related to Chiropsalmus and established a separate genus Chirodectes for the species. So far, it has remained the only species of the genus Chirodectes Gershwin, 2006.
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lisa-Ann Gershwin: Comments on Chiropsalmus (Cnidaria: Cubozoa: Chirodropida): a preliminary revision of the Chiropsalmidae, with descriptions of two new genera and two new species. Zootaxa, 1231: 1–42, Auckland 2006 Abstract (PDF; 19 kB)