Atolla (tenella) Hartlaub, 1909
A red deep-water domed jellyfish
Size
- body upto 10 cm
Color & Characteristics
- Disk flat, dome transparent, lenticular (lens–shaped)
- Internal structures and exumbella (bottom side) dark red
- 20-30 tentacles alternating with marginal rhopalia (sense organ)
- Umbella margins divided into lappets (a pair between each tentacle)
- Circular coronal furrow in exumbella deep
- in life, one tentacles always trails elongated
Habitat
- Arctic basins
- Meso-Bathypelagic, concentrated between 900 and 1400 m, observation beween 650 and 2200 m
- Commonly observed by ROVs, but rare in plankton net colelction
- Re-examination of material from older cruises shows it to be common throughout the Arctic
Feeding
- Diet is unknown
Life cycle
- Holoplanktonic, without a polyp stage
- embyro incubated in gonadal pouched
- released near fully developed
- Life span unknown
Taxonomic Note
- The validity of Atolla tenella remains in requestioned, or if this is simply Atolla wyvillei Haeckel, 1880
Page Author: Kevin Raskoff & Russ Hopcroft
Created: Aug 20, 2010
