Abstract
A new species of the cosmopolitan jellyfish genus Aurelia is described from the coastal waters of Mozambique using a combination of morphological, meristic and genetic information (COI and 18S). The species can be separated from congeners that have been recently described by a combination of bell shape, number of canal origins and anastomoses, and the shape of the manubrium and oral arms. Three types of nematocysts are present in the tissues of both the bell margin and oral arms, and this description of the cnidome will allow for future comparison. Pairwise genetic comparisons showed a mean COI divergence of 4.8% within the group, and a mean divergence ranging between 15% and 22% with all other species of Aurelia.
References
Allison, D.B., Paultre, F., Goran, M.I., Poehlman, E.T. & Heymsfield, S.B. (1995) Statistical considerations regarding the use of ratios to adjust data. International journal of obesity and related metabolic disorders, 19, 644–652.
Bigelow, H.B. (1904) Medusae from the Maldive Islands. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, 39, 245–269.
Brandt, J.F. (1835) Prodromus descriptionis animalium ab H. Mertensio observatorum: fascic. I. Polypos, Acalephas Discophoras et Siphonophoras, nec non Echinodermata continens. Recueil des Actes de la Séance Publique de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences de St. Pétersbourg, 201–275.
https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.10196
Brandt, J.F. (1838) Ausführliche Beschreibung der von CH Mertens auf seiner Weltumsegelung beobachteten Schirmquallen nebst allgemeinen Bemerkungen über die Schirmquallen überhaupt. Mémoires de l’Académie impériale des Sciences de St. Pétersbourg. sér. 6. Sciences naturelles, 2, 237–411.
Browne, E.T. (1905) Scyphomedusae. The Fauna and Geography of the Maldive and Laccadiv Archepelagos, 2 (Supplement I), 958–971.
Calder, D.R. (1971) Nematocysts of polyps of Aurelia, Chrysaora, and Cyanea, and their utility in identification. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society, 1, 269–274.
https://doi.org/10.2307/3225186
Collins, A.G., Jarms, G. & Morandini, A.C. (2020) World List of Scyphozoa. Available from: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=135220 (accessed 4 March 2020)
Cornelius, P.F.S. (1997) Class Scyphozoa—jellyfish. In: Richmond, M.D. (Ed.), A guide to the seashores of eastern Africa and the western Indian Ocean islands. SIDA/Department for Research Cooperation, SAREC, Stockholm, pp. 122–125.
Dawson, M.N. & Jacobs, D.K. (2001) Molecular Evidence for Cryptic Species of Aurelia aurita (Cnidaria, Scyphozoa). Biological Bulletin, 200, 92–96.
https://doi.org/10.2307/1543089
Dawson, M.N. & Martin, L.E. (2001) Geographic variation and ecological adaptation in Aurelia (Scyphozoa, Semaeostomeae): some implications from molecular phylogenetics. Hydrobiologia, 451, 259–273.
https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011869215330
Dawson, M.N. (2003) Macro-morphological variation among cryptic species of the moon jellyfish, Aurelia (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa). Marine Biology, 144, 369–379.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-003-1070-3
Dong, Z., Liu, D., Wang, Y., Di, B., Song, X. & Shi, Y. (2012) A report on a Moon Jellyfish Aurelia aurita bloom in Sishili Bay, Northern Yellow Sea of China in 2009. Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, 15 (2), 161–167.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14634988.2012.689583
FAO (2018) The RV Dr Fridtjof Nansen in the Western Indian Ocean. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Washington, 255 pp.
Gibbons, M.J. (1999) The taxonomic richness of South Africa’s marine fauna: a crisis at hand. South African Journal of Science, 95 (1), 8–12.
Gibbons, M.J., Buecher, E., Thibault-Botha, D. & Helm, R.R. (2010) Patterns in marine hydrozoan richness and biogeography around southern Africa: implications of life cycle strategy. Journal of Biogeography, 37, 606–616.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2009.02237.x
Gómez Daglio, L.E. & Dawson, M.N. (2017) Species richness of jellyfishes (Scyphozoa: Discomedusae) in the Tropical Eastern Pacific: missed taxa, molecules, and morphology match in a biodiversity hotspot. Invertebrate Systematics, 31 (5), 635–663.
https://doi.org/10.1071/IS16055
Gotte, A. (1886) Verzeielmifi der medusen, welche von Dr Sander, Stabsarzt auf S. M. S. “Prinz Adalbert” gesammelt wurden. Sitzungsberichte Akadamie der Wissensen, 1886 (2), 831–837.
Griffiths, C.L., Robinson, T.B., Lange, L. & Mead, A. (2010) Marine biodiversity in South Africa: an evaluation of current states of knowledge. PloS one, 5 (8), e12008.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012008
Haeckel, E. (1880) Das System der Medusen. Pt. 2. System der Acraspeden. Monographie der Medusen 1. Gustav Fischer, Jena, 672 pp.
Holst, S. (2012) Morphology and development of benthic and pelagic life stages of North Sea jellyfish (Scyphozoa, Cnidaria) with special emphasis on the identification of ephyra stages. Marine Biology, 159, 2707–2722.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-012-2028-0
ICZN (1999) International code of zoological nomeclature (4th ed.) International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London, 306 pp.
Jarms, G. & Morandini A.C. (2019) World Atlas of Jellyfish. Dölling und Galitz Verlag, Hamburg, 816 pp.
Kramp, P.L. (1961) Synopsis of the medusae of the world. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 40, 1–469.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025315400007347
Kumar, S., Stecher, G., Li, M., Knyaz, C. & Tamura, K. (2018) MEGA X: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis across computing platforms. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 35, 1547–1549.
https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msy096
Lamarck, J.B. (1816) Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertebres. Vol. 2. J.B. Balierrie, Paris, 822 pp.
Lutke, F.P. (1835) Voyage autour du monde... sur la corvette “le Seniavine” dans les annees 1826, 1827, 1828 et 1829. Firmin Didot Freres, Paris, 410 pp.
Maas, O. (1903) Die scyphomedusen der Siboga-expedition. Siboga expedition, 11 (9), 1–91.
Mayer, A.G. (1910) Medusae of the world. III: the Scyphomedusae. Carnegie Institute, Washington, 454 pp.
https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.159245
Mariscal, R.N. (1974) Nematocysts. In: Muscatine, L. & Lenhoff, H.M. (Eds.), Coelenterate biology, reviews and new perspectives. Academic Press, New York, pp. 129–178.
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-512150-7.50008-6
OpenStreetMap contributors. (2020) OpenStreetMap. Available from: https://www.openstreetmap.org (accessed 12 October 2020)
Ortman, B.D., Bucklin, A., Pages, F. & Youngbluth, M. (2010) DNA barcoding the Medusozoa using mtCOI. Deep-Sea Research II, 57, 2148–2156.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2010.09.017
Östman, C., Piraino, S. & Kem, W. (1991) Nematocysts of the Mediterranean hydroid Halocordyle disticha. Hydrobiologia, 216/217, 607–613.
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00026520
Östman, C. (2000) A guideline to nematocyst nomenclature and classification, and some notes on the systematic value of nematocysts. Scientia Marina, 64, 31–46.
https://doi.org/10.3989/scimar.2000.64s131
Peach, M.B. & Pitt, K.A. (2005) Morphology of the nematocysts of the medusae of two scyphozoans, Catostylus mosaicus and Phyllorhiza punctata (Rhizostomeae): implications for capture of prey. Invertebrate Biology, 124 (2), 98–108.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7410.2005.00012.x
QGIS.org. (2020) QGIS Geographic Information System. Open Source Geospatial Foundation Project. Available from: http://qgis.org (accessed 20 July 2019)
R Core Team (2013) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna. Available from: http://www.R-project.org/ (accessed 1 January 2019)
Ras, V., Neethling, S., Engelbrecht, A., Morandini, A.C., Bayha, K.M., Skrypzeck, H. and Gibbons, M.J. (2020) There are three species of Chrysaora (Scyphozoa: Discomedusae) in the Benguela upwelling ecosystem, not two. Zootaxa, 4778 (3), 401–438.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4778.3.1
Russell, F.S. (1970) The medusae of the British Isles II Pelagic Scyphozoa with a Supplement to the First Volume on Hydromedusae. Cambridge University Press, London, 284 pp.
Scorrano, S., Aglieri, G., Boero, F., Dawson, M.N. & Piraino, S. (2017) Unmasking Aurelia species in the Mediterranean Sea: an integrative morphometric and molecular approach. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 180, 243–267.
https://doi.org/10.1111/zoj.12494
Scroth, W., Jarms, G., Streit, B. & Schierwater, B. (2002) Speciation and phylogeography in the cosmopolitan marine moon jelly, Aurelia sp. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2 (1), 1–10.
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-2-1
Stiasny, G. (1919) Die Scyphomedusen-Sammlung des Naturhistorischen Reichsmuseums in Leiden: II. Stauromedusae, Coronatae, Semaeostomeae. Zoologische Mededelingen, 5 (9), 66–99.
Swofford, D.L. (2002) PAUP* Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony (and other methods). Version 4.10. Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign. [program]
Thompson, J.D., Higgins, D.G. & Gibson, T.J. (1994) CLUSTAL W: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic Acids Research, 22 (22), 4673–4680.
https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/22.22.4673
Vanhöffen, E. (1888) Untersuchungen über semäostome und rhizostome Medusen. Bibliotheca Zoologica, 3, 1–51.
https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.38091
von Lendenfeld, R. (1884) The scyphomedusae of the southern hemi-sphere. Part III. Conclusion. IV. Ordo—Discomedusae. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 9, 259–306.
von Linnaeus, C. (1758) Systema Naturae. 10th Edition. Laurentii Salvii, Stockholm, 824 pp.