2015 Volume 10 Issue 4 Pages 167-177
The name Carybdea morandinii Straehler-Pohl & Jarms, 2011 was applied to unknown cubopolyps found on dead coral rock at the Hagenbeck Zoo, Hamburg, Germany, during 1999, and a description was given of its early life history. Although included in Carybdeidae Lesson, 1843, its familial affinities remained uncertain. In 2006, a population of unidentified cubopolyps was discovered on the walls of a saltwater tank at the Umikirara Aquarium, Nagasaki, Japan. In addition, an immature cubomedusa and polyps were collected at Ginowan and Ishigaki, Okinawa, Japan, in 2002 and 2012. Genetic analysis established that these polyps and the medusa belonged to the same species as the polyps found in Nagasaki. Comparisons of the anatomy and asexual propagation methods of Japanese polyps, and their newly detached medusae, with early life stages of cubozoans cultured in Germany, revealed that the Japanese populations were likely conspecific with Carybdea morandinii. Subsequent genetic analysis confirmed this identification. Morphology of Japanese medusae revealed that they were referable to the family Alatinidae Gershwin, 2005, and within that family to the genus Alatina Gershwin, 2005, rather than to the family Carybdeidae.
