Pleurobrachia pileus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Pleurobrachia pileus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Washed up on the beach | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Ctenophora |
| Class: | Tentaculata |
| Order: | Cydippida |
| Family: | Cydippidae |
| Genus: | Pleurobrachia |
| Species: | P. pileus |
| Binomial name | |
| Pleurobrachia pileus (O. F. Müller, 1776) [1] | |
Pleurobrachia pileus is a species of comb jelly, commonly known as a sea gooseberry. It is found in open water in the northern Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, and was first described by the Danish zoologist Otto Friedrich Müller in 1776.
Pleurobrachia pileus is a small, globular or ovoid comb jelly up to about 2.5 cm (1 in) in length. It has a pair of long tentacles that are used to catch prey and can be retracted into sheaths. The tentacles are up to twenty times the length of the body and are fringed with filaments along one edge.[2] The body bears four pairs of longitudinal rows of cilia known as combs which extend about three quarters the length of the animal between its mouth and its aboral (opposite) end.
It is the beating of the cilia in synchrony that allows the animal to swim and that gives it an iridescent appearance. The body is transparent and the comb rows milky white. The tentacles, sheaths and pharynx are also milky white, or dull orange in some individuals.[2][3]
Distribution
Pleurobrachia pileus occurs in the northern Atlantic Ocean and along the northwestern coasts of Europe. Its range includes the Baltic Sea, the Skagerrak, the Kattegat and the North Sea. It is a pelagic species, occurring in open water, but is sometimes found in rock pools or washed up on the beach.[3] It also occurs off the eastern Atlantic coasts of North America, and in the Black Sea.
This comb jelly is common around the coasts of Europe in early summer. The populations in the Baltic Sea are dependent on the inflow of saline water from the North Sea.[4]
