Peromedusa jellyfish - Illustrated drawing from life - Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur

Engraving reproduction of: Peromedusa jellyfish

Original title Peromedusae - Talchenquallen

Poster of Periphylla - Cnidarians of the class Medusae or Craspedotes (Order of Floral Jellyfish)

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This information is over 120 years old and some of it may be outdated!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 Peromedusae
Family Periphyllidae (Periphyllidae)

Scientific notice (extract) accompanying the poster print of Peromedusae - Peromedusa jellyfish :

The Peromedusae (Peromedusae) form a very special order of imposing animals of the class of lobed jellyfish (Acraspedae), recently discovered in the deep sea. Their closest relatives are the discomedusae (Discomedusae, plates 8, 18, 28); but they are distinguished from these flat and discoid medusae not only by the high curvature of the conical umbrella, but also by remarkable features in the internal structure of the body. All discomedusae have at least eight rhopalia or sensory clubs on the edge of the umbrella (four perradial and four interradial); the peromedusae, on the other hand, have only four interradial rhopalia of a special structure (Fig. 6); on the other hand, in place of the four perradial rhopalia here are simple tentacles. Originally, all rhopalia of the Acraspedae originated from the transformation of tentacles. The mouth of the Peromedusae (Fig. 4) leads to a quadrangular buccal tube with four buccal pouches, which opens into a large conical stomach (Figs. 2, 3, upper half). Through four long interradial stomach slits, the nutrient fluid passes into a large annular cavity (annular sinus) and from there into 16 marginal pouches located on the edge of the umbrella. The gonads (bright yellow in Figs. 1 and 2) are four pairs of ridges that protrude from the underside of the umbrella. Between them are eight triangular delta muscles, and outside these a large annular muscle divided into 16 quadrangular fields (Figs. 1 and 5).

Species present on the naturalist board of Perimedusa jellyfish - Periphylla :

• Periphylla mirabilis
• Periphylla peronii
• Periphylla hyacinthina