Stalked jellyfishes attached to seaweed. At left, Haliclijslus auricula; at right, Craterolophus 

 convolvulus. The bigger one is less than 1 inch across. (England. D. P. Wilson) 



species of scyphozoan jellyfishes, some are harmless 

 and many can cause only mildly annoying prickling 

 or burning sensations. Moreover, there really is no 

 poison that is not another man's meat, for in the Gil- 

 bert Islands sea wasps are considered a delicacy. The 

 natives collect great shoals of them and scrape away 

 the tentacles and umbrella, retaining little but the 

 reproductive organs. Writing of this in Margins of 

 the Sea. Maurice Burton says that boiled sea wasps 

 taste like tripe — those first dried and then fried in 

 deep fat, like pork cracklings. Jellyfishes are relished 

 also by other peoples of the Pacific (p. 80 ) ; in Naga- 

 saki one may buy the large Rhopilema esculenta in 

 the market. Among the scyphozoans important in 

 sheltering young commercial fishes is Cyanea, which 

 gives cover to young whitings. 



Scyphozoan jellyfishes are usually easy to tell from 

 their tiny hydrozoan relatives because of their mod- 

 erate to large size and because they lack the trans- 

 parent shelf (velum) that projects inward from the 

 margin of the umbrella in the hydrozoans. In addi- 

 tion, scyphozoans may have fringed mouth lobes, a 

 scalloped rim, and a complex pattern of digestive 

 canals that contrasts strongly with the four simple 

 canals that radiate to the margin in the hydrozoan 

 medusas. 



A conspicuous four-sided symmetry shapes the ex- 

 ternal form and internal structure of most scypho- 

 zoans. The four stomach pouches and the four repro- 

 ductive organs often show through the translucent 

 body, and externally there are often four long, frilly 

 mouth lobes that entangle food organisms and direct 



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