Aurelia aurita

Jeremy Pierce Have I identified the little white things right as an early stage of Aurelia aurita (Moon jellyfish). Found on a Red sea squirt with a Purse sponge as a neighbour. Taken in July 2012, on the hull of the Y21 barge, Scapa Flow, Orkney. Cheers JAP.

Erling Svensen Yes, thats it.

Brendan Oonk Yes these are jellyfish polyps All these polyps are called Aurelia in Dutch waters. But there are 5 types of jellyfish here. Floor Driessen is doing DNA research to see if they truely are just Aurelia aurita. Final results expected in july.

George Brown Jeremy, they're called scyphistoma. Hope my spelling is ok! Nice photo.

David Fenwick Snr I took this image of Aurelia aurita attached to the bottom of a rock on the lowershore at Hayle, Cornwall today, was found by Keith Hiscock

John Paul Connor La Méduse bleue 0;Aurelia aurita)

Stuart Pearce One from working in public aquariums... Moon Jellyfish (Aurelia aurita)

John Paul Connor Aurelia aurita méduse bleue ou méduse lune fujifilm finepix 2012

Sylvie Lalane une fleur de la mer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John Paul Connor Merci Sylvie océan de bisous

Dany Frejaville blue <3

Annie Bodar c'est une beauté merci

Jeremy Pierce Have I identified the little white things right as an early stage of Aurelia aurita (Moon jellyfish). Found on a Red sea squirt with a Purse sponge as a neighbour. Taken in July 2012, on the hull of the Y21 barge, Scapa Flow, Orkney. Cheers JAP.

Erling Svensen Yes, thats it.

Brendan Oonk Yes these are jellyfish polyps All these polyps are called Aurelia in Dutch waters. But there are 5 types of jellyfish here. Floor Driessen is doing DNA research to see if they truely are just Aurelia aurita. Final results expected in july.

George Brown Jeremy, they're called scyphistoma. Hope my spelling is ok! Nice photo.

Aurora Boreale

Donna Lavoie Here is the one I took...Blue Heron Bridge Riveria Beach, FL...

Ron Silver Moon Jelly, Aurelia aurita

Paul Dyer That's a winner there. Great photo Aurora.

Andy Horton Nothing special about these

Bernard Picton I agree, we have blooms every year so it would take a lot of data to show any increase...

Darryl Mayer Two years ago the Aurelia aurita "bloom" was around the middle to end of May at Loch Sunart. This year it was much later. Is there any reason for this?

Simon Parker A very cold Spring. The water took longer to warm up. In Norfolk the sediment normally settles out at the start of the plankton bloom but we had a gap this year so could dive in May off the beach but not in June.

Penny Martin

Penny Martin I assume this is aurelia aurita , is it unusual to have 6 reproductive organs ???

Rachel Shucksmith Dounareay special?

Penny Martin there were at least 2 like this .... among hundreds

Simon Parker Not a brilliant picture. I'm thinking probably baby Moon Jelly?

Rebecca Helm Oy, with scypho polyps its so hard to tell. Though many Chrysaora have not had polyps recorded in the while, so could certainly be one of these or someone else. But deffinitally scyphozoan polyps.

Simon Parker Aurelia aurita is probably more common around Norfolk where this was taken. Anything is possible though.

Simon Parker This was growing on the boiler of the Clansman. A wreck in about 25m off Sea Palling, Norfolk. They're probably about 1mm tall.

Andy Horton When were these seen please?

Simon Parker Taken on Saturday 15th September in Norfolk as above comment.

Maria Cristina Coniglio

Stuart Pearce Nice shot :)

Maria Cristina Coniglio many in boca raton florida....

Maria Cristina Coniglio yesterday

Stuart Pearce Looks like a Moon jellyfish Aurelia sp. :)

Ron Silver Yes, Aurelia aurita. Strong NE winds past several days has piled these up along our local beaches here in Florida.

George Brown Might this be Cuthona nana? Found grazing scyphistoma polyp phase of Aurelia aurita. Pinnacles in the middle of Loch Fyne (location to be confirmed).

Terry Gosliner This looks like Flabellina salmonacea to me.

Joanne Porter Beautiful image George Brown

George Brown Thank you Terry. Checking SSF, the nudibranch does indeed have "subapical white band on cerata". I'll crop and post a close-up of the cerata.

George Brown Thank you Joanne. Are you on the next Seasearch Orkney trip? Can't wait! Was there a couple of weeks ago but it was all wide angle/fisheye stuff. Kept getting distracted finding nudibranchs!

Joanne Porter I will be on the next seasearch trip! Looking forward to seeing you there George Brown. We saw a few nudibranchs but we could have done with some help from you for identifying them.

Jim Anderson Could it be Catriona gymnota?

Marco Faasse I'm not sure which species of nudibranch this is. Anyway, Flabellina/Coryphella verrucosa is known as a predator of scyphopolyps: Hydrobiologia 355: 21â€"28, 1997. A. D. Naumov, H. Hummel, A. A. Sukhotin & J. S. Ryland (eds), Interactions and Adaptation Strategies of Marine Organisms. Abundance, feeding behaviour and nematocysts of scyphopolyps (Cnidaria) and nematocysts in their predator, the nudibranch Coryphella verrucosa (Mollusca) Carina O¨ stman

George Brown Thank you Jim and Marco. I'll be posting a close-up of the cerata later. Anything else I can do to assist id?

Jim Anderson On mature reflection I agree with Marco - Flabellina verrucosa

Erling Svensen A lot of Scyphistoma today on ascidiens...

Rachel Shucksmith thats nice Erling, I've never seen them stack up I was starting to think it was a myth!

Rebecca Helm aaaawwww <3

Rebecca Helm Strobilation in action! This is great to see in the wild. I'm not sure how many species have been documented to strobilate in the wild-- it would be great to get some ephyra from these guys and see what species it is.

Rebecca Helm Super cool!

Erling Svensen I have a feeling that it is the Aurelia aurita.

George Brown Fantastic Erling.

Rebecca Helm hey Erling Svensen-- do you mind if I write a small post about this on my blog (jellybiologist.com). If so, can you provide me with a bit more information on where you were, when and how deep? Thanks!

Erling Svensen Hi Rebecca. The picture is from South West Norway, yesterday, at 20 meters of seawater. The Scyphistoma was attached to the ascidien Ascidia mentula, and alot of this ascidiens had Scyphistoma on. I have also seen this and taken pictures of it in Ireland together with Bernard Picton. Water temperature was aprox. 3 degrees C. Please share it - I feel honored :-)

Cynthia D. Trowbridge So interesting to hear that the scyphistoma are on ascidians... wish we knew more about planulae substrate preferences. A student here (OIMB) is sequencing our locals ones. Usually Aurelia

Rebecca Helm Thanks so much for sharing! http://jellybiologist.com/2013/02/07/the-jellyfish-are-coming/

Wendy Northway just discovered schyphosta the end of last year! Blow me, just been to an aquarium and I noted loads of schyphista in the shark tank. (typical me however, much more interested in cnidarians than the sharks!) Thanks for sharing

Keith Hiscock And strobilating - something I have not seen in the frequent patches of Aurelia scyphistomae we get out of Plymouth.

George Brown In the UK are there other species producing scyphistoma similar to Aurelia? Or are they all Aurelia? Are there any ID features we should be looking out for? Cheers.

Rebecca Helm Hey George-- I'd love to know if there are other species strobilating as well. Once the ephyra form it's possible to tell species apart. It's very hard to ID scyphopolyps without ephyra. If you have pics I could probably get you to the family level, but rarely species. If you're interested, this is a great key: "Identification key for young ephyrae: a first step for early detection of jellyfish blooms"

George Brown Thank you Rebecca, I'll check this out. Scyphistoma are everywhere right now.

Rebecca Helm Woohoo! George-- I'm sure I can speak for many of us in saying I'd love to see pics! Plus, for many Chrysaora species, polyps have never been identified in the wild, so you may get a pub out of your observations if you find a Chrysaora species :)

Keith Hiscock I can find lots of papers about scyphistomae of west Atlantic Chrysaora species but only one on our north-east Atlantic species Chrysaora isoceles: Delap, M. J., 1901. Notes on the rearing of Chrysaora isosceles in an aquarium. Irish Naturalist 10: 25â€"28. I recall John Gamble (deceased) telling we that he had found Chrysaora scyphistomae at the time that he was working in Loch Ewe.

Ron Adley Marked rise in mass strandings over the summer along the west coast of Ireland, according to Dr Tom Doyle of University College Cork’s coastal and marine research center, with the mauve stinger (Pelagia noctiluca) being particularly prevalent.

Ron Silver Appears to be a photo of Aurelia aurita not the mauve stinger?

Ron Adley I tend to agree with you Ron...the four pink horseshoe-shaped gonads visible through the bell suggest it is a moon coupled with the differences in bell appearance...the mauve having more pigmentation..I can only assume, for the purposes of this article by the Irish Times, they used a stock picture....

Ron Silver Can't tell you how many times I've seen this happen......even by 'environmental' publications. In this instance, however, the article is about an animal that can cause harm to humans so substituting a photo of a harmless animal really does a great disservice to their readers and the public. Rant over. Thanx!

Ron Adley LOL agreed!!

Ron Adley Let's hope the substance carries this article and not the pic ;-)

Stefan Follows Lunacy.....! Moon Jellyfish - Aurelia aurita New Zealand, Poor Knights G10-250-f5.6-iso100-Internal Flash

Stefan Follows Lunacy.....! Moon Jellyfish - Aurelia aurita New Zealand, Poor Knights G10-250-f5.6-iso100-Internal Flash

Sylvie Omnès Aurelia aurita, Med Sea Canon G12 1st pic : 1/320s f8 ISO 200 Sola light 800 no flash 2nd pic : 1/1250s f7.1 ISO 200 Sola light 800 internal flash

Sylvie Omnès 1st pic and 2nd pic reversed ;-)

Sylvie Omnès "Eclipse" Aurelia aurita (jellyfish), Med Sea - Canon G12

Giorgio Cavallaro (Y)

Stefan Follows Lunacy.....! Moon Jellyfish - Aurelia aurita New Zealand, Poor Knights G10-250-f5.6-iso100-Internal Flash

Tom Hobock Really Cool

Stuart Pearce Beauty :)

Ernst Andres YESSSSSS :-)

Stefan Follows cheers all ;)

Darryl Mayer Found at Meanish Pier, Skye. Can anyone please give me an ID of this?

Marco Faasse Tima bairdi.

Darryl Mayer Excellent, thank you Marco.

Marco Faasse Nice find. I've never seen it; we sometimes see the similar Eutonina indicans, which has a much higher number of tentacles. It's about time I visit Scotland once more.

David Kipling You any good at squirts Marco?

David Kipling What's the rough size of this Darryl?

Darryl Mayer If I recall correctly, it was about the size of a small Aurelia aurita, about 70mm? It was "sunning" itself in the warm (13 degree) shallows (top 1metre) of Meanish Pier Harbour along with other hydromedusae and Jellies (one of which is also coming here for ID).

Marco Faasse No, David Kipling, I'm not good at squirts. I know (almost) all Dutch species and the very easy NE Atlantic species, that's all. The reason is probably that many other groups require less cumbersome lab procedures to study them.