Chirodropus gorilla

Haeckel, 1880

A large, poorly known, cuboid medusa. Bell reported up to ca. 120 mm high and wide, nearly flat-topped, probably without prominent vertical flutings on sides and corners; jelly thick, rigid. Lower part of bell thin, comprising 16 gelatinous lappet-like structures connected by velarium like a web. Velarium wide (1/6 bell height), thin, velarial canals 20+ per quadrant, tortuous, some with major forkings, all with short side-branches. Rhopalia 1/4 way up from bell margin, slit narrow, horizontal to downcurving, lips small. Pedalia 4, inserted along 1/3 of bell height, palmate, one proximal and several paired digitate processes each bearing a tentacle; up to 12 tentacles recorded on each bell corner. Gastric pouches 4, each bearing 2 conspicuous finger-shaped processes hanging down into subumbrellar space, each with numerous digitate to filiform processes on one side (length differing between specimens?). Gonads 4, attached beneath top of subumbrellar cavity, like bunches of grapes in shape. Chirodropus palmatus (Haeckel, 1880) may be conspecific.

Virulence unknown.

(After Mayer, 1910; Kramp, 1955).

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