''Gonionemus vertens'', the clinging jellyfish, is a small species of

hydrozoan 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 specialized ...

in the family

Olindiidae Olindiidae is a family of hydrozoans in the order Limnomedusae. They have a polyp (zoology), polyp phase and a Jellyfish, medusa phase. The polyps are generally small (1 mm) and solitary, but a few species are colonial. They have a varying ...

found in coastal regions throughout large parts of the Northern Hemisphere.

Description and behavior

The appearance of ''Gonionemus vertens'' is usually described as having a transparent bell lined with 60–80 (exceptionally up to 100–110)

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. The

gonad A gonad, sex gland, or reproductive gland is a mixed gland that produces the gametes and sex hormones of an organism. Female reproductive cells are egg cells, and male reproductive cells are sperm. The male gonad, the testicle, produces sper ...

s are distinctly colored orange, red or violet if the specimen is female, or yellow-brown if it is male. The gonads are arranged hanging from four radial canals so that when viewed from above, the gonads are lined perpendicularly. The

manubrium The sternum or breastbone is a long flat bone located in the central part of the chest. It connects to the ribs via cartilage and forms the front of the rib cage, thus helping to protect the heart, lungs, and major blood vessels from injury. Sha ...

, colored tan, hangs down in the middle. The bell of the

jellyfish Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella- ...

(medusae) is only in diameter, exceptionally up to , and when fully extended a tentacle can be twice the length of the bell diameter. The medusae

reproduce sexually Sexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that involves a complex life cycle in which a gamete ( haploid reproductive cells, such as a sperm or egg cell) with a single set of chromosomes combines with another gamete to produce a zygote tha ...

and the tens of thousands of eggs and sperm are released into the sea. They become

planula A planula is the free-swimming, flattened, ciliated, bilaterally symmetric larval form of various cnidarian species and also in some species of Ctenophores. Some groups of Nemerteans also produce larvae that are very similar to the planula, which ...

larvae that eventually attach themselves to the seabed on algae, rocks or shells as tiny

polyps A polyp in zoology is one of two forms found in the phylum Cnidaria, the other being the medusa. Polyps are roughly cylindrical in shape and elongated at the axis of the vase-shaped body. In solitary polyps, the aboral (opposite to oral) end is ...

that measure up to . The polyps can split into several by

budding Budding or blastogenesis is a type of asexual reproduction in which a new organism develops from an outgrowth or bud due to cell division at one particular site. For example, the small bulb-like projection coming out from the yeast cell is know ...

. The change from polyp to tiny medusae, initially measuring only , typically happens when the water surpasses . Because of this, the medusae follow an annual pattern and first appear in the spring or later depending on temperature, sometimes causing sudden blooms where many show up at once. The medusae stage generally lasts no more than three months, but the species can live for years in the polyp stage. During the day the medusae will attach themselves with the adhesive patches on their tentacles to various surfaces, especially

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the orde ...

, earning the species its common name clinging jellyfish. ''Gonionemus vertens'' may catch prey when attaches to surfaces during the day, but they mostly feed at night in open water, eating

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 ...

ic organisms like

fish larvae Ichthyoplankton (from Greek: ἰχθύς, , "fish"; and πλαγκτός, , "drifter") are the eggs and larvae of fish. They are mostly found in the sunlit zone of the water column, less than 200 metres deep, which is sometimes called the epip ...

and tiny crustaceans.

Distribution

''Gonionemus vertens'' is a marine and

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

species from shallow coastal waters of the north Pacific region, but there is considerable uncertainty about its exact native distribution. It certainly includes the northwest Pacific from the

Russian Far East The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admini ...

to Japan. Some authorities also include areas south to Vietnam in its native range, and the northeast Pacific from the

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a cha ...

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

(the type locality), while others consider these as non-native introductions. Its northwest Atlantic range off

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

and

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

might be native, but most regard this as a non-native introduction. In the northwest Atlantic there are occasional records south to

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. Regardless of its exact native range, its small size and polyp stage means that it has been spread to some parts of the world where certainly non-native, becoming an

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

. In Europe where the species is non-native, they have been found locally in 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 ...

, and along the Atlantic coast from Portugal to Norway and Sweden. Other non-native records are from southern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, the

Dry Tortugas Dry Tortugas National Park is a national park located about west of Key West in the Gulf of Mexico. The park preserves Fort Jefferson and the seven Dry Tortugas islands, the westernmost and most isolated of the Florida Keys. The archipelago's c ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

and near

Mar del Plata Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" is a s ...

in Argentina, with the last being the only known locality in the Southern Hemisphere.

Sting

In much of its range, ''Gonionemus vertens'' has a strong sting, which can cause pain, a swollen throat, chest tightness, muscle cramps,

neuropsychiatric Neuropsychiatry or Organic Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that deals with psychiatry as it relates to neurology, in an effort to understand and attribute behavior to the interaction of neurobiology and social psychology factors. Within neurop ...

changes and

anaphylactic shock Anaphylaxis is a serious, potentially fatal allergic reaction and medical emergency that is rapid in onset and requires immediate medical attention regardless of use of emergency medication on site. It typically causes more than one of the follow ...

. Stinging incidents have been reported from East Asia (at least Japan and Russia), Europe and the Atlantic coast of the United States. In contrast, the sting of ''Gonionemus vertens'' apparently can not be felt in its northeast Pacific range off North America where it is considered entirely harmless to humans. In the past, it was also regarded as harmless on the Atlantic coast of North America and the recent strong stings in this region possibly is the result of introductions of the Asian form of the species. As a consequence of this variation in the sting and minor geographic variations in the

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

, some speculate that ''Gonionemus vertens'' as presently defined is a

species complex In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

Description and behavior

Distribution

Sting

References

Further reading