Mastigias

The genus Mastigias is native to the western and central Indo-Pacific, from Australia to Japan, and Micronesia to the Indian Ocean.^[5] However, most Mastigias organisms choose to live in landlocked marine lakes.^[6] Behavioral differences among this genus do occur with varying habitats. Marine lake Mastigias' swim slower than their oceanic ancestors.^[7] The Mastigias genus may have to adapt to a habitat with warmer temperatures. With growing temperature deviation above the average, organisms within this genus have seen a decrease in population abundance as well as growing mortality rates.^[8]

Mastigias jellyfish have a symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae^[9] living in host gastrodermal cells where they exhibit phased division.^[10] Mastigias papua symbiotically produce ephyrae only in the presence of Symbiodinium, in a process called strobilation.^[11]