''Aequorea vitrina'', commonly called the crystal jellyfish, crystal jelly, lampshade or disk jellyfish, is a species of

hydrozoa Hydrozoa (hydrozoans; ) are a taxonomic class of individually very small, predatory animals, some solitary and some colonial, most of which inhabit saline water. The colonies of the colonial species can be large, and in some cases the specialize ...

n in the family Aequoreidae. The specific name ''vitrina'' means "

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling ( quenching ...

y", due to its transparent appearance; it should not be confused with ''

Aequorea victoria ''Aequorea victoria'', also sometimes called the crystal jelly, is a bioluminescent hydrozoan jellyfish, or hydromedusa, that is found off the west coast of North America. The species is best known as the source of two proteins involved in biolu ...

'', which is also sometimes called the crystal jelly.

Description

''Aequorea vitrina'' in its medusa (adult) stage has a diameter of ; thick in the centre, gradually thinning towards margin. Its

stomach The stomach is a muscular, hollow organ in the gastrointestinal tract of humans and many other animals, including several invertebrates. The stomach has a dilated structure and functions as a vital organ in the digestive system. The stomach i ...

is about half the width of the disc. It has 60–100 radial canals, its gonads extend along almost their entire length. It has 200+ tentacles, of or more, and 1 or 2

statocyst The statocyst is a balance sensory receptor present in some aquatic invertebrates, including bivalves, cnidarians, ctenophorans, echinoderms, cephalopods, and crustaceans. A similar structure is also found in '' Xenoturbella''. The statocyst c ...

s between radial canals.

Distribution

''Aequorea vitrina'' is found in the

neritic zone The neritic zone (or sublittoral zone) is the relatively shallow part of the ocean above the drop-off of the continental shelf, approximately in depth. From the point of view of marine biology it forms a relatively stable and well-illuminated ...

in waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland and in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

. In 2017 it was recorded in the

Sea of Marmara The Sea of Marmara,; grc, Προποντίς, Προποντίδα, Propontís, Propontída also known as the Marmara Sea, is an inland sea located entirely within the borders of Turkey. It connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea via t ...

as an invasive species.

Behaviour

Feeds on

brine shrimp ''Artemia'' is a genus of aquatic crustaceans also known as brine shrimp. It is the only genus in the family Artemiidae. The first historical record of the existence of ''Artemia'' dates back to the first half of the 10th century AD from Urmia L ...

(''

Artemia salina ''Artemia salina'' is a species of brine shrimp – aquatic crustaceans that are more closely related to '' Triops'' and cladocerans than to true shrimp. It belongs to a lineage that does not appear to have changed much in . ''A. salina'' is na ...

'') and rotifers (''

Brachionus plicatilis ''Brachionus plicatilis'' is a euryhaline (tolerate a wide range of salinity) rotifer in the family '' Brachionidae'', and is possibly the only commercially important rotifer, being raised in the aquaculture industry as food for fish larvae. It ha ...

''). It is bioluminescent due to

aequorin Aequorin is a calcium-activated photoprotein isolated from the hydrozoan ''Aequorea victoria''. Its bioluminescence was studied decades before the protein was isolated from the animal by Osamu Shimomura in 1962. In the animal, the protein occur ...

and green fluorescent protein.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2626159 Invertebrates of the North Sea Aequoreidae Animals described in 1853 Taxa named by Philip Henry Gosse Cnidarians of the Atlantic Ocean