''Cyanea'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

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 umbre ...

, primarily found in northern waters of the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

and

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

s and southern Pacific waters of Australia and New Zealand, there are also several boreal, polar, tropical and sub-tropical species. Commonly found in and associated with rivers and fjords. The same genus name has been given to a genus of plants of the

Hawaiian lobelioids The Hawaiian lobelioids are a group of flowering plants in the bellflower family, Campanulaceae, subfamily Lobelioideae, all of which are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. This is the largest plant radiation in the Hawaiian Islands, and indeed the ...

, an example of a ''parahomonym'' (same name, different kingdom).

Species

The

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

of ''Cyanea''

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 appropriat ...

has seen increased scrutiny in recent years.Dawson MN. 2005. Cyanea capillata is not a cosmopolitan jellyfish: morphological and molecular evidence for C. annaskala and C. rosea (Scyphozoa : Semaeostomeae : Cyaneidae) in south-eastern Australia. Invertebrate systematics 19:361–370.Kolbasova GD, Zalevsky AO, Gafurov AR, Gusev PO, Ezhova MA, Zheludkevich AA, Konovalova OP, Kosobokova KN, Kotlov NU, Lanina NO, Lapashina AS, Medvedev DO, Nosikova KS, Nuzhdina EO, Bazykin GA, Neretina TV. 2015. A new species of Cyanea jellyfish sympatric to C. capillata in the White Sea. Polar biology 38:1439–1451. Early zoologists suggested that all species within the genus should be treated as one. Recent molecular and integrative taxonomic studies have refuted this assertion as the

scyphozoa The Scyphozoa are an exclusively marine class of the phylum Cnidaria, referred to as the true jellyfish (or "true jellies"). The class name Scyphozoa comes from the Greek word ''skyphos'' (), denoting a kind of drinking cup and alluding to the ...

n community has restored many of the previous species. For example, in the

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

, the lion's mane jellyfish and the

blue jellyfish ''Cyanea lamarckii'', also known as the blue jellyfish or bluefire jellyfish, is a species of jellyfish in the family Cyaneidae. Description Blue jellyfish age can be identified by color of their bell. They tend to be pale in appearance when ...

appear as distinct species. On the East Coast of the United States there are at least two co-occurring species, ''C. fulva'' and ''C. versicolor''.Brewer RH. 1991. Morphological differences between, and reproductive isolation of, two populations of the jellyfish Cyanea in Long Island Sound, USA. In: Coelenterate Biology: Recent Research on Cnidaria and Ctenophora. Springer Netherlands, 471–477. ''Cyanea'' may be 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 ...

of recently diverged species. *'' Cyanea annasethe'' Haeckel, 1880 *'' Cyanea annaskala'' von Lendenfeld, 1882 *'' Cyanea barkeri'' Gershwin, Zeidler & Davie, 2010 'nomen dubium''*''

Cyanea buitendijki Cyanea may refer to: * ''Cyanea'' (jellyfish), a genus of jellyfish in the family Cyaneidae * ''Cyanea'' (plant), a genus of Hawaiian plants in the family Campanulaceae * An ancient Greek name that means "blue sky" and in the Greek alphabet it' ...

'' Stiasny, 1919 *''

Cyanea capillata The lion's mane jellyfish (''Cyanea capillata''), also known as the giant jellyfish, arctic red jellyfish, or the hair jelly, is one of the largest known species of jellyfish. Its range is confined to cold, boreal waters of the Arctic, norther ...

'' Linnaeus, 1758 *'' Cyanea citrea'' Kishinouye, 1910 *''

Cyanea ferruginea Cyanea may refer to: * ''Cyanea'' (jellyfish), a genus of jellyfish in the family Cyaneidae * ''Cyanea'' (plant), a genus of Hawaiian plants in the family Campanulaceae * An ancient Greek name that means "blue sky" and in the Greek alphabet it' ...

'' Eschscholtz, 1829 *'' Cyanea fulva'' Agassiz, 1862 *''

Cyanea lamarckii ''Cyanea lamarckii'', also known as the blue jellyfish or bluefire jellyfish, is a species of jellyfish in the family Cyaneidae. Description Blue jellyfish age can be identified by color of their bell. They tend to be pale in appearance when ...

'' Péron & Lesueur, 1810 *'' Cyanea mjöbergi'' Stiasny, 1921 *'' Cyanea muellerianthe'' Haacke, 1887 *'' Cyanea nozakii'' Kishinouye, 1891 *'' Cyanea postelsi'' Brandt, 1835 *'' Cyanea purpurea'' Kishinouye, 1910 *''

Cyanea rosea Cyanea may refer to: * ''Cyanea'' (jellyfish), a genus of jellyfish in the family Cyaneidae * ''Cyanea'' (plant), a genus of Hawaiian plants in the family Campanulaceae * An ancient Greek name that means "blue sky" and in the Greek alphabet it' ...

'' Quoy & Gaimard, 1824 *'' Cyanea tzetlinii'' Kolbasova & Neretina, 2015 *'' Cyanea versicolor'' Agassiz, 1862

References

Cyaneidae Scyphozoan genera {{Scyphozoa-stub