Abstract
A latina nr mordens have been located in large predictable spawning aggregations near Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea eight to ten days after a full moon; however, polyps have never been located in-situ. The polyp stage contributes to the abundance of medusae through asexual reproduction and metamorphosis, and may influence the periodicity of medusae by metamorphosis of the polyp. To elucidate the relationship between medusae periodicity and polyp ecology, polyps were exposed to thermal and osmotic treatments in order to determine the theoretical environmental limits to their distribution. Maximum fecundity occurred in thermal treatments of 21 to 25ºC and the theoretical minimum thermal requirement for population stability was approximately 17ºC. Polyps were also exposed to five feeding regimes and fecundity was found to be positively correlated with feeding frequency. Thermal and osmotic variations did not induce metamorphosis in this species, however, reduced food did. The implications of asexual reproduction and cues for metamorphosis in relation to population dynamics of this species are discussed.
Highlights
Tropical Australian cubozoa exhibit marked seasonality predictably arriving in large numbers in the coastal waters of North Queensland annually [1]
Life-cycle studies on cubozoa indicate that unlike scyphozoa, cubozoa do not undergo strobilation; instead the entire polyp undergoes metamorphosis into a medusa [7,8,11,13,14,15,16], with exception noted in Carybdea marsupialis from Puerto Rico [17]
A latina nr mordens polyps exhibited a population increase in temperature treatments between 18 and 31oC. This range of temperatures occurs in depths between zero and 180 meters at Osprey Reef (Dunstan, 2009, unpublished data), below this depth it theoretically appears that the temperature is too low for population stability
Summary
Tropical Australian cubozoa exhibit marked seasonality predictably arriving in large numbers in the coastal waters of North Queensland annually [1]. During this period the medusae grow to sexual maturity, spawn, and subsequently disappear (presumably dying) [1,2]. Life-cycle studies on cubozoa indicate that unlike scyphozoa, cubozoa do not undergo strobilation; instead the entire polyp undergoes metamorphosis into a medusa [7,8,11,13,14,15,16], with exception noted in Carybdea marsupialis from Puerto Rico [17]. The medusae grow to sexual maturity and may form predictable spawning aggregations [22]
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