|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
||
 |
 |
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Click on images for larger format |
||||
Name derivation: |
||||
Morphology: |
||||
Craspedacusta's morphology varies with its life stages. The life cycle is characterized by an alternation between a sexual medusa stage and an asexual polyp stage. The medusa stage has the typical bell shape of jellyfish. The zygote resulting from external fertilization develops into a colonial polyp (hydroid). Polyps are unconspicuous (single polyp usually less than 2mm long), and have been observed only occasionally. The hydroid can reproduce asexually in three ways: budding of new polyps that remain attached or separate from the parent polyp; production of medusa buds that are released and develop quickly into a sexually mature organism; production of frustule larvae that budd off the polyp and moves slowly on the substratum and develops into new polyps.
|
||||
Similar genera: |
||||
|
|
||||
Habitat |
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
References: |
||||
|
|
||||
