First record of jellyfish Anomalorhiza shawi Light, 1921 (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa) and its associated organisms in Sabah, Malaysia

Sighting of the rare jellyfish Anomalorhiza shawi Light, 1921 in a marine protected area of Hong Kong

“…This area is associated with important coral communities, hosting a large biodiversity of flora and fauna, and also includes ecologically sensitive mangroves, which provide habitat to juvenile fish and invertebrate populations. The sighting of A. shawi within this area could indicate that the species may not be oceanic, and may be associated with juvenile fish and invertebrates as a protection from predators, which is supported by the conclusions drawn by Chuan et al (2020).…”

“…Anomalorhiza shawi is known to associate with other marine organisms, with previous records of A. shawi showing crabs and juvenile fishes found within the bell of the medusae (Chuan et al 2020). Small organisms will generally associate with jellyfishes to obtain shelter from predators (Purcell and Arai 2001;Ohtsuka et al 2010;Gonçalves et al 2016;Moraes et al 2017), providing trophic resources and protection for juvenile fish (Masuda et al 2008;Griffin et al 2019), as a food source (Pauly et al 2009; D'Ambra et al 2014), for prey collection (Masuda et al 2008), or as a form of transportation.…”

“…The photograph was uploaded to the iNaturalist platform, a community platform for documenting nature observations, where the online community can suggest identifications of species. The species was first identified through the iNaturalist community and then confirmed by using Kitamura and Omori (2010), as well as WoRMS (Collins et al 2020), Light (1921, and Chuan et al (2020). The photographs were also compared to other online observations (http://www.kohchangnature.com/ category/koh-chang-wildlife/koh-chang-invertebrates/ koh-chang-corals/, https://www.chaloklum-diving.com/ marine-life-guide-koh-phangan/corals-more-cnidaria/ true-jellyfish-scythozoa/other-rhizostome-jellyfish/).…”

“…There are four published historical records of sightings of this species (Fig. 1): Philippines (Light 1921), Hawaii (Cooke 1984), Thailand (Marine and Coastal Research and Development Institute 2015), and Malaysia (Chuan et al 2020). Online searches on social media platforms and iNaturalist shows only two potential prior observations of this species in Hong Kong (Fig.…”

“…The species was initially described by Light in 1921 on the basis of two specimens collected in Manila Bay, Philippines (Light 1921). Additional reports of this species have been published, further extending the known range of the species to Hawaii (Cooke 1984), the east coast of Thailand (Marine and Coastal Research and Development Institute 2015), the Philippines (Kitamura and Omori 2010), and most recently Sabah, Malaysia (Chuan et al 2020) (Fig. 1).…”