Jellyfish - medusoid forms

Code IB999999

Key terminates here

Bell-shaped (medusoid) jellyfish are a mainly marine group. Only two families and two species of medusoid jellyfish are recorded from Australian inland waters. One is the cosmopolitan Craspedacusta sowerbyi ( Olindiidae, Code IB039999 ), found floating near the surface in large freshwater lakes and reservoirs. The other is the endemic Australomedusa baylii ( Austromedusidae, Code IB049999 ), known only from saline lakes in eastern Victoria.

C. sowerbyi is circular, about 2.5cm in diameter and almost transparent, with tentacles about 2cm long. It was first recorded near Adelaide in 1950 but now is widespread, and may or may not be an introduction. A. baylii is about 2cm in diameter and almost the same in height or depth of the bell, with short tentacles arranged in four groups around the margin, and is an Australian endemic.