Zancleopsis Hartlaub, 1907

Schuchert, Peter & Collins, Richard, 2021, Hydromedusae observed during night dives in the Gulf Stream, Revue suisse de Zoologie 128 (2), pp. 237-356 : 271-272

Genus Zancleopsis Hartlaub, 1907

Diagnosis: Medusa with or without apical projection; four tentacles, either two long, opposed, capitate tentacles with capitate side branches and two opposed, shorter, simple capitate tentacles, or with four simple capitate tentacles; marginal tentacular bulbs clasping umbrella margin, bulbs with large hemispherical adaxial bulges covered with nematocysts, with abaxial ocelli; manubrium flask-shaped; mouth more or less cruciform, with or without simple lips; gonads interradial to adradial, smooth with interradial cleft or more adradial pads or vertical folds. Polyp stage unknown.

Remarks: The affinities of this genus were obscure for a long time. Hartlaub (1907) placed it in the Zancleidae, Mayer (1910) and Kramp (1961) in the Cladonematidae, Kramp (1965, 1968 ) in the Pandeidae . It was only when Bouillon (1978b) examined the cnidome it became clear that the presence of stenoteles excluded the Pandeidae , while the desmonemes excluded the Zancleidae . Because also the Cladonematidae differ considerably, Bouillon (1978b) proposed the new family Zancleopsidae to accommodate it. The family currently also includes the genus Dicnida Bouillon, 1978b ( Bouillon et al., 2006), but it is unclear if it belongs to the suborders Capitata or Aplanulata . Our results presented below show that the family belongs to the Capitata.

The species delimitations within the genus Zancleopsis are not well worked out, despite the comparisons or keys given in Bouillon (1978b, 1985) or Wang et al. (2016). The differences are mostly either due to mutilated- or to juvenile specimens having not yet developed diagnostic traits ( Bouillon, 1978b).