Carybdea

Note that Carybdea morandinii was not considered in this revision of Carybdea, as it was recently reassigned to the family Alatinidae as Alatina morandinii (Straehler-Pohl & Toshino 2015).

Diagnosis: Medusae of Carybdea Péron & Lesueur (1810), the only genus within Carybdeidae (Lesson 1843), can be differentiated from all other families in the order Carybdeida by their possession of a heart-shaped rhopaliar niche ostium with a single, upper covering scale and no lower scales (Gershwin 2005 a; Bentlage et al. 2010; Bentlage & Lewis 2012). To date there are 8 accepted species of Carybdea, with Carybdea marsupialis being the type species.

Remarks: Carybdea is the first described cubozoan genus, and numerous cubozoan species were assigned to this genus prior to recent taxonomic revisions (reviewed in Bentlage & Lewis 2012). Recent classification of the 8 carybdeid species considered for this study (following Mayer 1910; Kramp 1961; Mianzan & Cornelius 1999; Gershwin 2005 a; Calder 2009; Straehler-Pohl & Jarms 2011, World Register of Marine Species — WoRMS, present study): Phylum Cnidaria Verrill, 1865 Subphylum Medusozoa Petersen, 1979 Class Cubozoa Werner, 1973 Order Carybdeida Gegenbaur, 1857 Family Carybdeidae Gegenbaur, 1857 Genus Carybdea Péron & Lesueur, 1810

Type species: Carybdea marsupialis (Linnaeus 1758), by subsequent description and designation by Claus (1878) and Haeckel (1880; 1882).