Lions Mane & Mesoglea
A small (bell diameter ~ 8-9cm) Lions mane jelly (Cyanea capillata) from our trip to the beach today. We have seen quite a few of these in the estuary and at the beaches this year, not sure if more or less than last year though. Near this one were two more small jellies along with one mesoglea. Possibly the perfect ingredient for jelly burgers... they are inert, flavorless and probably have little caloric value.
Classification of the Lion's Mane Jelly
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Cnidaria
- Class
- Scyphozoa
- Order
- Semaeostomeae
- Family
- Cyaneidae
- Genus
- Cyanea
- Species
- Cyanea capillata (Linnaeus, 1758)
cool 'jellies.' The lions main gets huge doesn't it? or is that s a smaller species. I have to ask, how do you know the mesoglea is 'flavorless' - did you try a jelly burger? lol
ReplyDeleteUp north the lions mane attains some gargantuan sizes with bell diameters ranging to 2+ meters and tentacle lengths of up to 30m. Here we are in the southern end of their year round range and they run smaller. I have seen (and been stung by) some with 30cm diameter trailing 3-4m tentacles. Fortunately diving here is never wetsuit-less, but kissing one of these is NOT a good idea, take from first hand experience.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the second picture? Is it a part of a jelly? Or a different jelly altogether?
ReplyDeleteThat's the disk of mesoglea material we found, about 5-6cm in diameter.
ReplyDeleteRe: neil - Yeah, got hit in the mouth with one while coming ashore from a night dive. Salty (and a bit sandy) but otherwise no taste...of course I didn't bite into it either...
ReplyDelete