Ctenophora · comb jellies

Sea gooseberry

Pleurobrachia pileus

Pleurobrachiidae · sea gooseberriesIUCN: Not evaluated
Sea gooseberry
Photo: Zeisterre · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized

A marble-sized comb jelly that fishes with two long, sticky tentacles.

Fun factIts eight rows of beating combs scatter light into shimmering rainbows.

Waters
Northeast US, Northwest Atlantic, Northeast Atlantic
Depth zone
Coastal shallows & estuaries, Open-ocean surface waters
Diet
Copepods & fish larvae
Size
About 2 cm

Classification

Ctenophora › Pleurobrachiidae

  1. Kingdom Animalia animals
    • Many-celled organisms that eat other living things for energy (heterotrophs)
    • Cells have no cell walls
    • Most can move at some stage of life
  2. Phylum Ctenophora comb jellies
    • Comb jellies: swim using eight rows of beating hair plates (comb rows)
    • Catch prey with sticky cells (colloblasts), not stinging cells
    • Comb rows scatter light into rainbows
  3. Family Pleurobrachiidae sea gooseberries
    • Small, round comb jellies with two long, retractable tentacles
    • Tentacles fish for prey and retract into sheaths
  4. Genus Pleurobrachia
    • Species in the same genus are very close relatives and often look alike.
  5. Species Pleurobrachia pileus Sea gooseberry