''Aiptasia diaphana'', commonly known as the yellow aiptasia or glasrose, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

sea anemone Sea anemones are a group of predation, predatory marine invertebrates of the order (biology), order Actiniaria. Because of their colourful appearance, they are named after the ''Anemone'', a terrestrial flowering plant. Sea anemones are classifi ...

native to shallow waters in the temperate eastern Atlantic Ocean and the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

. It has been introduced into the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...

Description

''Aiptasia diaphana'' is a small sea anemone with a base diameter of up to , a column height of up to and an oral disc of . The column is yellowish-brown or brownish-green, smooth and retractable. The colour is somewhat variable because

symbiotic Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasit ...

algae (

zooxanthellae Zooxanthellae is a colloquial term for single-celled dinoflagellates that are able to live in symbiosis with diverse marine invertebrates including demosponges, corals, jellyfish, and nudibranchs. Most known zooxanthellae are in the genus ''Sy ...

) are sometimes present in the tissues. The oral disc is transparent and bears, round the rim, four or five whorls of slender, pointed

tentacle In zoology, a tentacle is a flexible, mobile, and elongated organ present in some species of animals, most of them invertebrates. In animal anatomy, tentacles usually occur in one or more pairs. Anatomically, the tentacles of animals work main ...

s making a total of up to 160 tentacles. These are translucent with white bases, a distinguishing feature for this species.

Distribution and habitat

''Aiptasia diaphana'' is native to the Atlantic coast of Portugal, the Canary Islands and throughout the Mediterranean Sea and has been introduced to the Red Sea. It is found on hard surfaces at depths down to about and favours areas with poor water quality such as harbours and lagoons. It is often found at high densities.

Biology

''Aiptasia diaphana'' catches passing invertebrates, marine larvae and small fish with its tentacles, immobilising the

prey Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill the ...

with its

cnidocyte A cnidocyte (also known as a cnidoblast or nematocyte) is an explosive cell containing one large secretory organelle called a cnidocyst (also known as a cnida () or nematocyst) that can deliver a sting to other organisms. The presence of this ce ...

s (stinging cells). It also obtains nourishment from the zooxanthellae in its tissues. These photosynthetic algae manufacture carbohydrates in sunlight and these nutrients are available to the sea anemone. ''Aiptasia diaphana'' reproduces by both sexual and

asexual reproduction Asexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that does not involve the fusion of gametes or change in the number of chromosomes. The offspring that arise by asexual reproduction from either unicellular or multicellular organisms inherit the fu ...

and does so under different conditions. In the summer the main method is pedal laceration; the sea anemone crawls along the substrate and fragments of the base become detached, each fragment growing into a new individual, a clone of the parent. Under laboratory conditions, an adult female can produce males, females and

hermaphrodite In reproductive biology, a hermaphrodite () is an organism that has both kinds of reproductive organs and can produce both gametes associated with male and female sexes. Many Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrate ...

individuals in this way.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1983834 Aiptasiidae Animals described in 1869