Square, flat jelly off the coast of Peru
Description and Comments
Flat (I think) square jellyfish aprox. 15m away from a sea lion rockery off the coast of Lima, Peru. Tourist companies who take people to swim with the sea lions have reported several stinging incidents this year, something that has not previously happened. I unfortunately do not have a picture, just a terrible sketch of what I remember seeing. It looked quite intricate. If it had tentacles they were not long or numerous. Aprox 10-15cm on each side. It moved quickly, I was snorkeling and dove after it with a capture device. I missed and came up for air and it was gone by the time I went back under. Visibility was about 3-4m. Water temp is about 18 Celsius this time of year. Any guesses? Thanks!
Type of organism
Jellyfish
Quantity
1
Latitude
-12.14
Longitude
-77.26
Condition
Alive
Comments
Hi. The square flat shape in
Hi. The square flat shape in your sketch looks somewhat like Foersteria (http://jellieszone.com/hydromedusae/foersteria/) but they do not swim very fast, and they are not powerful stingers. 10-15 cm is also a bit larger than would be expected. If you look at pictures of leptomedusae, like that one and Mitrocoma, is that the general morphology?
Hi Thanks for the info! For
In reply to Hi. The square flat shape in by jellywatch
Hi
Thanks for the info! For some reason the jellieszone page wont load, but the other some of the other images I've found looks similar and the descriptions match the little bit I saw. I'm not sure how reliable a source the people who were stung are as far as pain goes, but I believe it produced a small rash. I'm not in my element when it comes to jellyfish morphology but I'll keep searching, thank you!!