Aurelia aurita

(Linné, 1758)

Disc flat, typically up to ca. 30 cm in diameter, rarely recorded up to 40, 50 or even 100+ cm; flexible, transparent; marginal lobes 8, broad, shallowly - almost imperceptibly - cleft between; tentacles filiform, about as long as disc diameter, very numerous, up to a few hundred to more than 1000 in large specimens, arising nearly at bell edge. Subumbrella musculature inconspicuous. Mouth-arms elongate, tapered, V-shaped in section, in life typically held horizontally when young (when shorter than bell radius), dangling down in older specimens (when longer than radius). From stomach lead 16 unbranched radial canals and 16 which typically fork roughly dichotomously into branches which connect approximately straight to ring canal. Gonads in 4 (nearly) complete rings, conspicuous due to their color and transparency of bell.
Coloration: transparent, some specimens colorless throughout, in some gonads colored red through magenta to blue, in others extreme periphery of bell same color as gonads; in still others, entire bell washed with same hue. Radial canals and tentacles whitish.

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