Nematocysts of the Ephyra Stages of Aurelia, Chrysaora, Cyanea, and Rhopilema (Cnidaria, Scyphozoa)
- 1 January 1977
- journal article
- research article
- Published by JSTOR in Transactions of the American Microscopical Society
- Vol. 96 (1) , 13-19
- https://doi.org/10.2307/3225958
Abstract
Nematocysts of the ephyra stages of the scyphozoans A. aurita, Chrysaora quinquecirrha, Cyanea capillata fulva, and Rhopilema verrilli were examined using light microscopy. Isorhizas, heterotrichous anisorhizas and heterotrichous microbasic euryteles were present in Chrysaora, Cyanea and Rhopilema. Isorhizas and heterotrichous microbasic euryteles only were found in Aurelia. The isorhizas were of 1 morphological type in Rhopilema (a-isorhizas), 2 types in both Aurelia (a-isorhizas and polyspiras) and Chrysaora (a-isorhizas and A-isorhizas), and 3 types in Cyanea (a-isorhizas, A-isorhizas and .alpha.-isorhizas). Polyspiras and A-isorhizas were present only in occasional specimens of Aurelia and Cyanea, respectively. The .alpha.-isorhizas were found in all but a few ephyrae of Cyanea. Differences in the nematocyst complement can be used as an aid in distinguishing ephyrae of the 4 spp. from the Chesapeake Bay [USA] region.This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: