Ptychophorae Explained

Ptychophorae is a suborder of rhizostome jellyfish, identified in 2013 by Gershwin and Davie.^[1]

The word Ptychophorae is said to be derived from the Greek (fold, leaf, layer) and (bearing), in reference to the hooded rhopalia.^[1] The proper word for 'fold' in ancient Greek is however ptyx (πτύξ).^[2]

Distinctive features

Ptychophorae are distinguished by the following features:

• The body is globular.
• The oral arms coalesce into a single short, ridged column, without scapulets.
• The rhopalia is hooded, lacking typical pits.
• There are 4 velar lappets per octant.
• There 2 asymmetrical ocular lappets per octant.
• The annular muscles are conspicuous.
• The subgenital ostia are very small and round.
• The stomach is circular and large.
• There are 4 radial canals per octant, proximally unbranched, and fluted, and peripherally coalesced into vast open sinus with patchwork of jelly matrix.

Taxonomy

• Family Bazingidae
  • Genus Bazinga

The single identified member of this suborder is the Bazinga rieki.

Notes and References

1. Web site: A remarkable new jellyfish (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa) from coastal Australia, representing a new suborder within the Rhizostomeae. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum — Nature 56(2). Gershwin, L. . Davie, P.J.F. . amp . 30 June 2013. 625–630.. Queensland Museum. 0079-8835 .
2. Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). A Greek-English Lexicon revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford: Clarendon Press.