CLASSIFICATION OF AURELIA (JELLY FISH)
PHYLUM :- COELENTRATA (Tissue grade, diploblastic and acoelomate. )
CLASS :- SCYPHOZOA (Medusa well developed, hydroid reduced.)
ORDER :- SEMAEOSTOMEAE (Free-swimming scyphomedusae with umbrella-like disk and oral lobes.)
FAMILY :- ULMARIIDAE (Simple or branched radial canals and a ring canal.)
GENUS :- Aurelia (Jelly fish)
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
Very common along the entire Atlantic coast and Pacific coast and only form reported in temperate regions.
HABIT AND HABITAT
Aurelia is a solitary marine and medusoid jelly-fish often living in brackish water. It inhabits coastal water of all oceans in all zones and in abundant number, mostly living in warm and temperate latitudes
GENERAL CHARACTERSTICS OF AURELIA (JELLY FISH)
- Commonly called as Jelly fish measuring approximately 30 cm in diameter.
- Body is gelatinous, transparent, bluish, white, reddish or pinkish.
- Saucer-shaped body is distinguished into convex ex-umbrellar and concave sub-umbrellar surfaces.
- Various other structures seen are gastric filaments, sub-genital pits and velarium.
- Sub-umbrellar margin contains marginal tentacles having stinging cells and 8 marginal lappets having sense organs or tentaculocysts in 8 lobes.
- Mouth 4-comered. Each comer is drawn out into an oral arm along perradii.
- Inter-radial, adradial and per-radial gastrovascular canals open in circular canal. Velarium present.
- Jelly fish feeds on molluscs, crustaceans, protozoans, nematodes, rotifers, diatoms, polychaetes and copepods. (9) It swims by rhythmic contractions of umbrellar surfaces.
- Male and female separate individuals. Life-cycle shows alteration of generation.
- It responds to mussel juice, proteins, peptones, amino acids but not to sugars, starches or glycogen.
IDENTIFICATION
- The animal has jelly like texture, marginal tentacles, oral arms and all above characters, hence it is Aurelia.
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