Crambionella orsini

Crambionella orsini is characterized by a bell diameter ranging from 10 to 20 cm. The species exhibits a robust, dense, and cartilaginous texture with a smooth surface. Each octant of the jellyfish features 16 small, smoothly contoured, sharp-pointed velar lappets, which are divided by pigment-free furrows that extend upward on the exumbrella. The mouth arms are approximately equal to the bell radius in length, with the proximal section being short and comprising one-third of the length of the distal three-winged portion. This section is notable for its large, prismatic shape, ending in a short, gelatinous, pyramidal, and bluntly pointed terminal knob with three corners. Moreover, Crambionella orsini possesses an additional circular canal system with several radial vessels.

Members of the class Scyphozoa, to which this species belongs, are gonochoric, meaning that individuals are distinctly male or female. Their life cycle includes several stages: starting from an egg laid by the adult medusa, it develops into a free-living planula larva, transitions into a scyphistoma, then into a strobila, and finally matures into a free-living young medusa.

For the fishermen of 🇴🇲 Oman, these jellyfish have been a huge problem for several years now – their population has grown so much that fishing nets sometimes haul up several tons of these jellyfish instead of fish.