Abstract

ALVAREZ-TELLO, Francisco Javier; LOPEZ-MARTINEZ, Juana  and  RODRIGUEZ-ROMERO, Jesús. First record of the association between Stomolophus meleagris (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa: Rhizostomeae) and Conchoderma cf virgatum (Crustacea: Cirripedia: Thoracica) in the Gulf of California. Hidrobiológica [online]. 2013, vol.23, n.1, pp.138-142. ISSN 0188-8897.

The association between the scyphomedusae Stomolophus meleagris (Agassiz 1862) and a cirripede indentified as Conchoderma cf virgatum (Spengler, 1790) in the Gulf of California was recorded for the first time on April 2010, during the fishing season of edible jellyfish in Guaymas, Mexico. Despite its wide distribution, records on this barnacle are scarce on the coast of Mexico, so this note is one of the few reports of C. virgatum in the Gulf of California and the first record of symbiosis with jellyfish S. meleagris worldwide. Some damage observed on the bell surface of the jellyfish suggest that the epibiont affected the growth of its host negatively, although C. virgatum is not considered an obligate parasite.

Keywords : Association; cirripede; epibiosis; Gulf of California; jellyfish.