BioGalleries Mystery Quizzes | By The Light Of The Moon - Aequorea | | Print | |
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Photo and Article by David Denning
 By The Light Of The Moon - Aequorea Aequorea aequorea, the many-ribbed hydromedusa, also known as the water jelly, is a familiar and widespread jellyfish species. This is a highly transparent jelly with very distinct and numerous rib-like radial canals. It is found in open waters and near shore along both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America, with related species found worldwide. They can easily be spotted at night as bright, pulsing balls of light caused by their own bioluminescence. Aequorea has been reported to prey on other jellyfish, even of their own species. This species is often mistaken for Aurelia, the moon jelly. However, the two are generally easy to tell apart when you know what to look for. Aurelia has 4 distinct, round or horse-shoe shaped gonads (pink or violet for a female, yellowish brown for a male) near the top of the bell. Aequorea do not have any visible gonads.
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