IS THE SCYPHOMEDUSA CYANEA-CAPILLATA (L.) DEPENDENT ON GELATINOUS PREY FOR ITS EARLY DEVELOPMENT

Newly released ephyrae of the scyphomedusa Cyanea capillata did not gr ow on either Artemia nauplii or copepod dominated mixed zooplankton, b ut grew with an average rate of 16.5% day(-1) (maximum of 30.6% day(-1 )) with a ctenophore as food. The two first food types did not generat e medusae with normal development of tentacles and oral arms over a se ven-week period, whereas the ctenophore food did. We suggest that avai lability of gelatinous prey for newly released ephyrae is a bottleneck in the development, making constraints on the population succession a nd at least partly explaining inter-annual variations in abundance of C. capillata.