''Cassiopea ndrosia'' is a species of

true jellyfish 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 ...

in the family

Cassiopeidae ''Cassiopea'' (upside-down jellyfish) is a genus of true jellyfish and members of the family Cassiopeidae. They are found in warmer coastal regions around the world, including shallow mangrove swamps, mudflats, canals, and turtle grass flats in ...

. It has been found in the

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

and in waters surrounding

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

Etymology

The

genus name Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial spec ...

derives from

Cassiopeia Cassiopeia or Cassiopea may refer to: Greek mythology * Cassiopeia (mother of Andromeda), queen of Aethiopia and mother of Andromeda * Cassiopeia (wife of Phoenix), wife of Phoenix, king of Phoenicia * Cassiopeia, wife of Epaphus, king of Egy ...

, a figure in

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

. The specific epithet, ''ndrosia'', was derived from the native Fijian name for the species, ''ndrosi''.

Description

''Cassiopea ndrosia'' has eight

oral arm An oral arm is an anatomical structure of "true" sea jellies (or Scyphozoans), which belong to the class Scyphozoa. Oral arms characterize Semaeostomeae, an order of large jellyfish. The oral arms (of which there are usually four) are located ...

s, around 30 mm (1.2 in) in length, that have suction-mouths and leaf-shaped vesicles on their lower surface. The upper portions of these arms can range from white to slightly gray; the suction-mouths are surrounded by small tentacles that are a deep brown color, and the vesicles are an olive-green. It has four sub-genital cavities, and four gonads. Its bell is disk-shaped and flat, and is around 50 mm (1.9 in) in diameter. The number of

rhopalia Rhopalia (singular: rhopalium) from Ancient Greek ῥόπαλον (''rhópalon'') 'club' are small sensory structures of certain Scyphozoan (true jellyfish) and Cubozoan (box jellyfish) species. Description The structures typically occur in mul ...

can vary, with the original description noting there were instances of specimens having 18 and 22. The rhopalia are equidistant from each other. It has two sets of muscle bands; a number of these, in the lower bell, radiate towards the rhopalia. These bands are opaque and white, while those on the top of the bell are a deep blue-green color. The bell is mostly an ashy brown, otherwise. Each rhopalium has a white spot on its radius, and there are often four white streaks between each adjacent pair of rhopalia. Additionally, there are several white spots on the inner area of the lower bell. It has four small pores, or ostia, in the sub-genital area.

References

Taxa named by Alexander Agassiz Animals described in 1899 ndrosia Cnidarians of the Pacific Ocean {{Medusozoa-stub