Cubomedusae and Scyphomedusae
Taxonomy

There have been several reviews of aspects of the biology of the two groups covered, but rather few and some of the older ones are still useful taxonomically. There is no previous South Atlantic guide. Mayer (1910) is the most recent world monograph, though Cornelius is currently preparing an updated one. Kramp (1961) listed, somewhat uncritically, almost all the nominal species and provided an exhaustive compilation of literature and taxonomic opinion of the previous 50 years. F.S. Russell (1970) reviewed the British scyphomedusa species with great clarity and his book has wide relevance despite its narrow geographic limitation. Werner (1984) and Franc (1995a, b) both provided text-book reviews of both groups. Larson (1986) provided an extensive account of the scyphomedusae of the Southern Ocean. Important collections of articles on swarming and blooms, especially of Pelagia in the Mediterranean, were provided in two UNESCO symposia (Anonymous, 1984; UNEP, 1991; see also reviews on hydromedusa and scyphomedusa swarming by Arai, 1992 and 1997, respectively). Aspects of envenomation (stings) were summarised by F. E. Russell (1984), Halstead (1988) and Williamson et al. (1996). The last is a valuable reference source on medical aspects and illustrates many species. Cornelius (1997c) provided a dichotomous key to all the genera. Probably the most useful book on the biology of the group is that by Arai (1997), which summarised an enormous amount of research data on all aspects of the Scyphomedusae, including biological and commercial aspects; but taxonomic and most medical aspects and the Cubomedusae were omitted. Lack of well-researched identification literature has held up studies of all kinds on the group in most regions of the world, and this continues to be a problem. We anticipate that the present synopsis will prove to be accurate for the South Atlantic species. The species limits of most of those included here seem adequately understood, which could not have been claimed a decade or so ago. Though some species might be added to the faunal list, they may be rather few. Some nomenclatural and taxonomic revision is inevitably incorporated into this chapter and will be explained in future publications.