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Jellyfish Pelagia noctiluca ("Mauve stinger")

Jellyfish Pelagia noctiluca ("Mauve stinger")
Jellyfish Pelagia noctiluca ("Mauve stinger")
Jellyfish Pelagia noctiluca ("Mauve stinger")
Jellyfish Pelagia noctiluca ("Mauve stinger")
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143103
Madin, Laurence P.
Jellyfish Pelagia noctiluca ("Mauve stinger")
Still Image
08/19/2008
graphics/madin_slides/pelagia_2.jpg
Image of The Day caption:
Elegant and diaphanous, the jellyfish Pelagia noctiluca is pretty, but packs a punch. These jellies (also called "purple-striped jelly" or "mauve stinger") produce bright bioluminescent light (noctiluca means "night light") and feed by catching smaller plankton animals, or zooplankton, on tentacles laden with stinging cells. Common in coastal waters of most oceans, they can cause problems for humans?swarms of thousands of Pelagia plagued Mediterranean beaches in summer 2008, causing painful stings to swimmers.
Photo by Larry Madin
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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