Haeckel, 1880
Umbrella to ca. 1 m in diameter; bell rather flat, peripheral skirt region of exumbrella having numerous (up to 144?) furrows, some forking; lappets numerous, probably increasing in number with age, up to ca. 176?, (16 rhopalar plus 20 groups of 8 tentacular), elongate and fused laterally along entire length to form skirt of bell, end shallow-circular and crenate. Rhopalial niches 8, conspicuous, beneath skirt, on underside, at level of inner end of lappet; border a raised annulus, flanked either by two sausage-shaped, curving lips, with small gap on outer and inner sides, or by continuous raised margin without gap (both seen by present authors). Tentacles arising over wide zone of subumbrella, from outer edge of stomach to inner edge of lappets, seemingly irregularly scattered; outermost narrow, those of inner ca. 2/3 of tentacle zone wide, up to 10 mm wide, nearly flat in section, longer than outer tentacles, extensile to nearly 2 m. Oral arms (not preserved in all specimens) thin sheets, much folded when contracted, extending downward greatly during feeding to a length slightly greater than bell diameter. Gastrovascular pouches as numerous as marginal lappets, narrow, elongate, forking in basal region.
Coloration (after Haeckel, 1880; Stiasny, 1940; Mianzan, 1986b, 1989; Cornelius, Silveira and Mianzan, in prep.): ground-color of bell probably somewhat pale in all specimens, variously reported as reddish-white, milk-white, light rose to violet, yellowish brown to pale golden yellow. Many, but not all, specimens have a star pattern comprising 16 darker radial lines (of same general color as bell but darker, or brown) extending from or near centre towards periphery, the distance differing between specimens. Tentacles translucent, colorless, but also noted as white with inner canal reddish, or pale golden-yellow.
Remark: Drymonema gorgo Müller, 1883 is conspecific.