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Flabellina rubrolineata and Nausithoe punctata polyps
Tanjung Lampy, Lembeh.
This picture shows the nudibranch Flabellina rubrolineata cruising by but the emphasis here is on polyps of the jellyfish Nausithoe punctata. These are the nearby orange patches with a white top and tentacles. These will at some point produce free jellies but are still on their juvenile phase.
Scyphozoan cnidarians are characterized by a polyp * phase restricted to absent. If it is mostly easier to observe a jellyfish in the open water than to find and observe the polyp that gave birth to it. The case of Nausithoe punctata, on the other hand, will pose the opposite problem: it is much easier to find the polyp phase than the jellyfish phase!
The polyp phase:
The polyps of Nausithoe punctata form colonies sometimes covering a large area.
They have the shape of narrow.. more
comments (5)
Unfortunately at the moment my attention was on the nudi so I did not make close-ups of the jellies-to-be but I think it is still Ok since the tentacles are visible and they are more or less focused. Posted 6 years ago