Marine Wildlife Encyclopedia
Creeping Comb Jelly Coeloplana astericola
While most comb jellies live in the plankton, creeping comb jellies have taken up a bottom-living existence. Instead of the more usual rounded shape, they are flattened and look like a tiny squashed ball. The mouth is in the center of the underside with the statocyst, a balancing organ found in all comb jellies, opposite it on the upper side. Comb rows are absent as they have no need to swim, and they move by muscular undulations of the body rather like a small flatworm. Creeping comb jellies lives on the orange sea star (Echinaster luzonicus), lying still and almost invisible during the day, its color and mottled pattern matching its echinoderm host. At night, the creeping comb jelly extends its two long feeding tentacles to ensnare planktonic prey.
zoom image
- Phylum Ctenophora
- Diameter in (1 cm)
- Depth Not recorded
- Habitat On the orange sea star
- Distribution Tropical waters of western Pacific
zoom image
