Long tubules of tentacular nematocysts in the moon jellyfish <i>Aurelia coerulea</i> (Semaeostomeae, Scyphozoa, Cnidaria) from Tanabe Bay, Pacific coast of southern Japan

Abstract

We collected 43 medusae of Aurelia coerulea from Tanabe Bay, Wakayama, Japan, and measured the tubule lengths of 1,613 nematocysts at different growth stages: ephyra, juvenile, subadult, and adult. The median tubule lengths for ephyrae, juveniles, subadults, and adults were 72, 51, 79, and 58 µm, respectively. No nematocysts in ephyrae, juveniles, or subadults exceeded 200 µm in tubule length. In the tentacles of 15 adults, we detected nematocysts with tubule lengths exceeding 200 µm. The average proportion of nematocysts with long tubules was 9.1% in medusae with bell diameters of 110 mm or more, in contrast to only 1.0% in medusae with bell diameters of less than 110 mm. Among the 1,613 nematocysts examined, there were two different tubule groups with modes at 54 µm and 230 µm in length. Nematocysts in the short-tubule group were composed of microbasic euryteles and small isorhizas, whereas the long-tubule group was composed of only microbasic euryteles. These long tubules of microbasic euryteles can potentially penetrate not only large planktonic crustaceans but also human skin. The growth-related and intra-species variation in tubule length could also modify the degree of envenomation in humans.