Beroe ovata Bruguière, 1789

Purushothaman, Jasmine, Siddique, Alfisa, Bhowal, Aishee & Chandra, Kailash, 2020, Diversity of Ctenophores in the Sundarban Mangroves, Northern Indian Ocean, Records of the Zoological Survey of India 120 (2), pp. 133-140 : 137-138

4. Beroe ovata Bruguière, 1789

1789. Beroe ovata Bruguière, J. G. Histoire naturelle des vers. Chez Panckoucke.

1860. Idyiopsis affinis Agassiz, L. Contrib. Nat. His. U.S.A. 3: 301.

Material examined: WN-CTEN-003; 2 specimens. Thakuran Channel: Surface water (21°39' 18" N, 88° 28'

13.9" E), Sundarbans , West Bengal, India, 20.1.2018. Coll. Jasmine P. and Party.

Description: Body appears like bell-shaped, elongated, cylindrical, slightly flattened, gradually tapering in a semicircular arc towards the aboral pole. Eight meridional canals associated with many diverticulae, forming a network. The wide side of four meridional canals is joined to paragastric canal via oral forks. The comb plates originating from the aboral pole end midway before reaching the oral pole. A narrow band of macrocilia situated inside the lips or oral portion. Body is pinkish, reddish brown or whitish in colour ( Moser, 1903).

Diagnosis: Specimen oral diameter 1.5 cm, length

2.2 cm from oral to aboral end and width of 1.9 cm ( Figure 2d ).

Distribution: Indian waters (Ramakrishna & Sarkar.

1998). Elsewhere: Black Sea ( Arashkevich, 2001; Finenko et al., 2003), Atlantic Ocean ( Mayer, 1912), coastal waters of the United States and Canada, Gulf of Mexico ( Bayha 2006), Caspian Sea ( Kideys et al., 2004) , Mediterranean Sea (Mills. 1996) , Northern Adriatic Sea ( Shiganova & Malej, 2008) .

Remark: The specimen has shrunk in size due to preservation in formaldehyde.

Figures

Figure 2. Collected ctenophore species of Sundarbans, Bay of Bengal, Northern Indian Ocean. (a) Pleurobrachia pileus; (b) Pleurobrachia globosa; (c) Beroe gracilis; (d) Beroe ovata.