Jellyfish Shrimp
| Jellyfish Shrimp | ||||||||||||
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Jellyfish Shrimp ( Hyperia galba ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Hyperia galba | ||||||||||||
| ( Montagu , 1813) |
The Hyperia Galba ( Hyperia galba , Syn. : Hyperia latreillei Milne-Edwards , 1830) is a species of the genus Hyperia and one of the flea crabs (Amphipoda). Within the amphipods, the Hyperiidea form a suborder that is characterized by their way of life in the plankton of the seas. There they feed on animals floating in the sea. Hyperia galba is associated with umbrella jellyfish .
features
The females of the jellyfish shrimp reach a length of 2 to 4.5 mm, the males are 1.5 to 6 mm tall or long (according to another source even up to 12 mm). The females have very short antennae , the males have elongated first and second antennae. Due to their huge, bulging eyes, which make up the majority of the head in both sexes, compared to their small body, these amphipods are counted among the Physocephalata , which means "large head". The strongly curved body gives the jellyfish an almost spherical appearance. They are (transparent) light brown or brownish in color with tiny dark pigment spots and they have large reddish brown or green eyes. As soon as the animals swimming freely in the plankton have clung to or in umbrella jellyfish , they become colorless and transparent.
distribution
The jellyfish is usually mesopelagic worldwide, along all European coasts from the North Sea near Helgoland (in the 2 nautical mile zone of Helgoland, especially in the Helgoland roadstead ["Hel (i) goland (-) Roads"]) to the west Baltic Sea, the north-eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean . It is also found off the coasts of the United States and Canada in the northwest Atlantic.
Way of life
Usually live Hyperia galba under the jellyfish umbrella of scyphozoa (Scyphozoa: Rhizostomae - Rhizostoma octopus [preferred], jellyfish - Aurelia aurita, Yellow Hair jellyfish - Cyanea capillata and Compass jellyfish - Chrysaora melanaster ) or are pelagic, gelatinous zooplankton ( Anthomedusae , scyphomedusae , siphonophores , Comb jellyfish and salps ). It is definitely not uncommon to find jellyfish in a stranded jellyfish. They live in the bulk of eggs (from) the jellyfish. A number of the jellyfish killed by sea birds contained the surviving symbiotic crustacean amphipods, the jellyfish amphibians. These are remarkable, small creatures that are only found in jellyfish as adults.
The type of association with the jellyfish has not yet been investigated. It has not yet been proven that the jellyfish shrimp lives as an ectoparasite on the jellyfish themselves, but it is assumed that it feeds as a food parasite on the gelatinous zooplankton that is filtered and collected by the jellyfish , on which they are often found. They were also found in / in the " food pouch " (English: food pouch = gastric pouch ?) In which they fed on the food collected by the jellyfish.
Very little real facts are known about the relationships between the flea shrimp Hyperia galba and various jellyfish with which it symbiosis. Some authors attribute H. galba to the parasites , but without any evidence. J. H. Orton (1922) assumed that H. galba was parasite food and Alister Clavering Hardy (1956) tended to accept his view. K. Stephensen (1923) asserted that no flea cancer apart from the wallae is a real parasite; and this view is represented by the current parasitological reference works.
This flea shrimp is attracted to the light. It is known to cover large vertical distances ('hikes') during the day from 1000 m depth during the day to / up to 500 m at night. In winter it is on the seabed.
Reproductive biology
Females with eggs are common in spring and the young usually hatch in summer. Newly hatched offspring (“children” or “young people”) are very similar to their parents. No one knows where hatched cubs spend most of their adulthood.
Enemies
Seabirds look for jellyfish shrimp in jellyfish, often pecking the jellyfish dead () and also finding Hyperia galba .
Photographs
- Gallery and additional information at B arcode o f L ife D ata Systems (English)
- Gallery (small) with photographs of jellyfish amphipod and other information at the British Marine Life Study Society (English)
- Illustration at U niversity of W ashington Lib raries - Digital Collections (English)
- Jellyfish on / in a jellyfish at tauchprojekt.de (German, English)
- Side shot on flickr
- Side photograph and short description at planktonnet (English)
- Front view (small) on flickr
swell
Web links
- Information with photography (5th line) at tauchprojekt.de (German, English)
- Brief description from n ature p ublishing g roup (English)
- Short description with photo ( memento from October 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) at SeaOnScreen (English)
- Clear profile at Answers.com (English)
- Root mouth jellyfish (Rhizostoma octopus)
- About the taxonomy :
Individual evidence
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↑ Silke Johannsen, Nicole Megger, Dominik Böhme, Roland K. O. Sigel and Jens Müller ( Johannsen S. et al. ): Crustacea ( Memento of the original from September 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked . Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( MS Excel ; 29 kB) ( Hyperia galba , Johannsen S. et al. 1999, H 2 *).
H 2 = found in the 2 nm zone of Helgoland / around Helgoland, including the rocky coast and the Helgoland nature reserve
* = in this special case: samples from the Helgoland roadstead ("Hel [i] goland [-] Roads"), a collection point for a long-term study
