Cannonball Jellyfish

Taxobox
name = Cannonball Jellyfish

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image_width = 255px
image_caption = A Cannonball Jellyfish in the water near Dog Island, Florida
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Cnidaria
classis = Scyphozoa
ordo = Rhizostomae
familia = Stomolophidae
genus = "Stomolophus"
species = "S. meleagris"
binomial = "Stomolophus meleagris"
binomial_authority = (Agassiz, 1860 [cite book |last=Agassiz |first=Louis |authorlink=Louis Agassiz |title=Contributions to the natural history of the United States of America. Vol. 3 |year=1860 |publisher=Little Brown and Co. |location=Boston |pages=301 ] )

The Cannonball Jellyfish ("Stomolophus meleagris") is a species of jellyfish in the family Stomolophidae. Its common name derives from its similarity to a cannonball in shape and size. Its dome-shaped bell can reach 25 cm (10 inches) in diameter and the rim is sometimes colored with brown pigment.

Cannonball Jellyfish have been found in the eastern and western Pacific, but they are most common along the southeastern coast of the United States, including the Gulf Coast, where they are often referred to as "cabbage heads." They eat zooplankton such as veligers, and also red drum larvae. Cannonball Jellyfish do not sting humans. [cite paper | author = DuBose B. Griffin | title = Cannonball Jellyfish | publisher = South Carolina Department of Natural Resources | url = http://www.dnr.sc.gov/cwcs/pdf/Cannonballjellyfish.pdf | format = PDF | accessdate = 2007-11-10] The reproduction of cannonball jellyfish my be asexual or sexual. However, in most cnidarians sexual reproduction is not an imparative way of reproducing.Cite journal | author = Daphne Gail Fautin | year = 2002 | title = Reproduction of Cnidaria | journal = Canadian Journal of Zoology | volume = 80 | issue = 10 | pages = 1735–1754 | doi = 10.1139/z02-133]

References