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A new genus and species of sympagic trachymedusa, Glaciambulata neumayeri gen. et sp. nov., are described based on material from Antarctica. Its generic features are compared to those of its relatives, Ptychogastria Allman, 1878 and Tesserogastria Beyer, 1959, and a review of the family Ptychogastriidae Mayer, 1910, based on literature data, is provided. From this, it results that the poorlyknown Pectis antarctica Haeckel, 1879, formerly assigned to Ptychogastria by a number of authors, displays all characters of the contemporary rhopalonematid genus Voragonema Naumov, 1971. It is additionally demonstrated that V. laciniata Bouillon et al., 2001 is coterminous with P. antarctica, a finding that clarifies, 137 years later, the morphology and the taxonomic status of Haeckel’s medusa. In accordance with the Principle of Priority, Pectis is recognized as the valid name of the genus, and Voragonema is assigned to its synonymy. Similarly so, the specific name introduced by Haeckel has priority over laciniata.
The species of Aequorea attract much scientific interest as they contain the unique Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP). In this work we describe for the first time the discovery of a hydrozoan jellyfish belonging to the genus Aequorea from the Israeli eastern Mediterranean that contains and exhibits fluorescent protein. Finding Aequorea macrodactyla (Brandt, 1835) in the eastern Mediterranean indicates that changes are occurring in the gelatinous fauna of this area. This hydromedusa is known in the seas adjoining the Mediterranean though most of its records are more than four decades old. We examined and identified the newly discovered Israeli Aequorea species by combining two phylogenetic systems, traditional morphological phylogeny and molecular phylogenetics. The molecular identification determined that the species is A. macrodactyla but with minor genetic differences in the mtDNA 16S gene marker. A 1% difference between the Israeli and the Japanese A. macrodactyla was demonstrated, which suggests that the genetic difference between the Israeli and the Japanese population is small but existent. Invasive pathways for this jellyfish were examined by phylogenetic and taxonomic relationships with similar Cnidaria. The results indicate introduction from the Indo-Pacific as invasive pathway, probably by human transportation, and the discovery of A. macrodactyla in the eastern Mediterranean Sea could be interpreted as part of the changes in marine biota as a result of cumulative effects of anthropogenic and global changes that affect the eastern Mediterranean basin.