Disc jellyfish - Decorative encyclopedic plate - Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur

Engraving reproduction of: Disc jellyfish

Original title Discomedusae - Scheibenquallen

Poster of Desmonema - Cnidarians of the class Jellyfish (Order Discomedusae)

Illustration from the book Kunstformen der Natur, which is a collection of artistic lithographs of natural sciences published by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel between 1899 and 1904.

This naturalistic illustration is part of an overall style inspired by Ernst Haeckel, which greatly influenced the emerging Art Nouveau movement at the beginning of the ^20th century. This work, illustrating the impressive beauty and great diversity of the biological world, was complemented by a certain amount of scientific information, some excerpts of which are reproduced below.

This information is over 120 years old and some of it may be outdated!

Scientific classification:

 Cnidarian Phylum (Cnidaria)
Class Scyphozoa (Acraspedae)
Order of Discomedusae (Discomedusae)
Suborder Semeostomes (Semostomae / Semaeostomeae)

Scientific notice (extract) accompanying the poster print of Discomedusae - Disc jellyfish :

The semastomes form a special suborder among the disc jellyfish or discomedusae, characterized by the division of their mouth into four often wide arms, sometimes resembling a waving banner or a pleated curtain. These graceful jellyfish, often remarkable for their delicate shape and magnificent colors, swim in large groups on the surface of the sea. Their swimming movement is provided by muscles that extend over the underside of their free disc (umbrella). The edge of this umbrella, or swimming disc, is divided into 8 to 16 pairs of lobes (sometimes 32 or more); between each pair of lobes is a sensory organ (rhopalium), consisting of an eye, an auditory vesicle, and a chemosensory pit. Along the edge of the umbrella are long, mobile tentacles used to capture prey. In the center of the umbrella is the central gastric cavity, from which 8 to 16 radial canals or grooves branch off toward the edge. In the center of the underside (subumbrella), the magen opens through the mouth; the four buccal (perradial) arms surrounding the opening are very mobile. Between these arms are four genital glands (gonads).

Species present on the naturalist plate of Disc jellyfish - Desmonema :

• Desmonema annasethe
• Floscula promethea
• Chrysaeora mediterranea