''Bolinopsis infundibulum'', commonly known as the common northern comb jelly, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), 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 ...

comb jelly Ctenophora (; ctenophore ; ) comprise a phylum of marine invertebrates, commonly known as comb jellies, that inhabit sea waters worldwide. They are notable for the groups of cilia they use for swimming (commonly referred to as "combs"), and ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Bolinopsidae. It is found in the northern Atlantic Ocean and was first described by the Danish naturalist Otto Friedrich Müller in 1776.

Description

''Bolinopsis infundibulum'' is an oblong comb jelly growing to a maximum length of about . The thin gelatinous body wall is transparent, or occasionally milky white. There are two short tentacles with fringed edges. The mouth is at one end of the body and has two large lobes beside it, used to funnel food towards it. Between the lobes are four auricles, gelatinous projections fringed with cilia, that produce feeding currents that help draw in the microscopic prey. The mouth is surrounded by a ring of tentilla (little tentacles). The other end of the body is bluntly pointed. Locomotion is provided by the four long longitudinal rows and four short rows of cilia. These cilia are arranged on transverse plates and beat in synchrony, giving the animal its iridescent appearance. The plates to which the cilia are attached are

bioluminescent Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by living organisms. It is a form of chemiluminescence. Bioluminescence occurs widely in marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some fungi, microorganisms including some b ...

Distribution

''Bolinopsis infundibulum'' occurs in the northern Atlantic, its range extending from the Arctic to 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 ...

in the east and the

Gulf of Maine , image = , alt = , caption = , image_bathymetry = GulfofMaine2.jpg , alt_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = Major features of the Gulf of Maine , location = Northeast coast of the ...

in the west. It also occurs in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

from the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea (, ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Amer ...

to California. It is found to a depth of about , with the largest individuals found at greater depths.

Ecology

''Bolinopsis infundibulum'' is a

predator 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 ...

and sometimes occurs in swarms. The food is drawn towards the mouth by the feeding current created by movement of cilia. Weakly swimming prey such as fish eggs and fry,

copepod Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthic (living on the ocean floor), a number of species have p ...

larvae, gastropod

veliger A veliger is the planktonic larva of many kinds of sea snails and freshwater snails, as well as most bivalve molluscs (clams) and tusk shells. Description The veliger is the characteristic larva of the gastropod, bivalve and scaphopod ...

rotifer The rotifers (, from the Latin , "wheel", and , "bearing"), commonly called wheel animals or wheel animalcules, make up a phylum (Rotifera ) of microscopic and near-microscopic pseudocoelomate animals. They were first described by Rev. John H ...

s and other tiny

zooplankton Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...

are then trapped by the tentilla and ingested. ''Bolinopsis infundibulum'' is an important part of the

food chain A food chain is a linear network of links in a food web starting from producer organisms (such as grass or algae which produce their own food via photosynthesis) and ending at an apex predator species (like grizzly bears or killer whales), d ...

, occurring in large numbers off the coast of Norway from April to August, and in Scotland from April to June. As many as 250 individuals per square metre have been recorded in mid-May, followed by a rapid decline. This sudden population collapse is believed to be caused by predation by another species of comb jelly, '' Beroe cucumis''. Larger individuals of ''B. infundibulum'' have been reported from deeper waters, preying on copepods, later in the year.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3015540 Bolinopsis Fauna of the Atlantic Ocean Taxa named by Otto Friedrich Müller Animals described in 1776