Chiropsoides quadrigatus
| Chiropsoides quadrigatus | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Chiropsoides quadrigatus | ||||||||||||
| ( Haeckel , 1880) |
Chiropsoides quadrigatus (originally a combination of Chiropsalmus quadrigatus ) is a type of box jellyfish and belongs to the family of Chirodropidae . However, it is a problematic taxon because the holotype is a badly damaged juvenile specimen. Some later descriptions that were related to this species do not agree with the holotype, so that several different species aredescribed and illustratedas Chiropsalmus quadrigatus in the literature and also on websites.
Characteristics (holotype) and geographical occurrence
On November 18, 1863, William Thallitzer caught a medusa about ten miles from Rangoon , Myanmar (formerly Burma) and brought it to the Zoological Museum of the University of Copenhagen . In 1880 Ernst Haeckel described the specimen preserved in alcohol as a new species of Chiropsalmus quadrigatus . Unfortunately he does not produce a picture. The holotype is still in the Zoological Museum of the University of Copenhagen and has already been examined several times.
The holotype preserved in alcohol is juvenile and also in poor condition. The Medusa umbrella is almost cube-shaped, just under 52 mm high and has a diameter of just under 30 mm (50 mm high, 45 mm wide). The values are not very reliable, however, because the copy has shrunk a bit. No circumferential aboral furrow is formed on the flattened exumbrella. In the interradial areas of the exumbrella, clear, three-sided pillar structures are developed. Nematocysts are absent from the surface of the exumbrella. Interradially, four pedals start at the corners of the cube-shaped umbrella, from which three to four finger-shaped processes and tentacles (attached to the tips of the fingers) arise distally and unilaterally (only on one side). The distal finger is the longest and the proximal finger is the shortest. The tentacles are thin (Haeckel assumed 16 tentacles), somewhat flattened-band-shaped and slightly broadened at the base. The entire length of the pedals canal is flat with an upward-pointing, thorn-shaped structure in the curve of the pedals (at the base) and with a small bulge at the proximal end of the longest pedals canal.
The Rhopalia sit in shallow pits; is dome-shaped and slightly raised. The ostium is flat at the bottom and W-shaped at the top. The animal either has no gastric pockets or they had not yet developed. A small gelatinous knoll is present in the perradial sections. The gonads are absent (and not yet developed).
differences
Chiropsoides buitendijki from Java differs from Chiropsoides quadrigatus from Myanmar in that the main canal of the pedial canals has a number of small bulges between the branches, with Chiropsoides quadrigatus the bulges are located on the branches. The first kind has five to nine finger-like appendages on the pedals, with Chiropsoides quadrigatus there are three to four. However, it should be noted that the holotype of Chiropsoides quadrigatus is a juvenile specimen.
Taxonomy
Due to this single, not fully grown specimen, which is also in poor condition, as well as due to the lack of pictures or illustrations, it was or is still difficult for researchers to determine this species with certainty. This uncertainty led to some forms occurring in the Indo-Pacific being (incorrectly) counted to the species Chiropsalmus quadrigatus .
Alfred Mayer (1910) was the first to re-describe the species after Ernst Haeckel, based on observations on adult and juvenile medusas from the Philippines. This description has been accepted by most authors as an extended description of the species. However, the Filipino finds and the Myanmar holotype are not conspecific, meaning they do not belong to the same species.
A further description of Chiropsalmus quadrigatus was provided by Gustav Stiasny in 1937 based on a medusa from the West Indian Ocean. Here, too, the specimen described is not identical with Haeckel's holotype, nor with the taxon that Alfred Mayer had described. Gershwin identified this specimen as Chironex sp.
The description of Chiropsalmus quadrigatus that Paul Lassenius Kramp published in his work Synopsis of the Medusae of the World does not apply to the holotype and thus to this species.
Jack Barnes (1965 and 1966) observed that two different species of chiropsalmus were found sympatric in the waters of North Queensland . He identified one of these species as Chiropsalmus quadrigatus . However, Lisa-Ann Gershwin rejected this identification. The form identified as Chiropsalmus quadrigatus was described by her as the new species Chiropsella bronzie .
Chiropsalmus quadrigatus was transferred to the genus Chiropsoides by Lisa-Ann Gershwin , since Chiropsalmus buitendijki Horst, 1907 from the waters off Java (Indonesia), and Chiropsalmus quadrigatus Haeckel, 1880 from the coast of Myanmar, are probably congeneric, ie belong to the same genus. Both types have the typical unilaterally branching pedals, a similar arrangement of the gastric pockets, the pedal canals and similar flattened tentacles. Chiropsalmus buitendijki Horst, 1907 is the type species of the genus Chiropsoides Southcott, 1956. So far, only these two species have been included in the genus Chiropsoides Southcott, 1956.
supporting documents
literature
- 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, 2006 PDF (abstract only)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Gershwin, Comments on Chiropsalmus, pp. 22-25.
- ↑ a b Ernst Haeckel: System der Acraspeden. Second half of the Medusa system. P. 361-672, 20 panels, G. Fischer, Jena, 1880 Online at www.biodiversitylibrary.org (p. 447).
- ^ Alfred Goldsborough Mayer: Medusae of the World. Vol. 3, The Scyphomedusae. Pp. 499–735, Carnegie Institution, Washington, DC Online at www.biodiversitylibrary.org (p. 516)
- ↑ Gustav Stiasny: scyphomedusae. Scientific Report of the John Murray Expedition, 1933-1934. vol. 4 (Zoology), pp. 203–242, British Museum, London, 1937 Online at www.biodiversitylibrary.org (pp. 213–17)
- ^ Paul Lassenius Kramp: Synopsis of the Medusae of the World. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 40: 1-469, Plymouth 1961 PDF ( Memento of the original from May 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Jack H. Barnes: Chironex fleckeri & Chiropsalmus quadrigatus - morphological distinctions. North Queensland Naturalist, 32, 13-22, 1965.
- ^ Jack H. Barnes: Studies on three venomous cubomedusae . In: Rees, WJ (Ed.), The Cnidaria and their Evolution, Symposium of the Zoological Society of London, 16: 307-332, Academic Press, London ,.
- ^ Rutger Horst: On a new cubomedusa from the Java Sea: Chiropsalmus buitendijki. Notes from the Leyden Museum, 29, 101-106, 1907 Online at archive.org
Web links
- Chiropsalmus quadrigatus (is not identical to the species described here!)