Chrysaora undetermined

Chrysaora sp. Distribution See Fig. 4, Mendoza-Becerril et al. (2025). Notes Specimens were assigned to the genus Chrysaora, based on diagnostic characters of pelagiid scyphomedusae (Morandini and Marques 2010), including a hemispherical bell, three marginal tentacles per octant (24 in total) between successive pairs of marginal sense organs and eight elongate, frilled oral arms. On the Atlantic coast of Mexico, Chrysaora quinquecirrha (Desor, 1848) has been reported in coastal waters of Tabasco (Gómez Daglio and Dawson 2017). Both C. quinquecirrha and C. chesapeakei (Papenfuss, 1936) have also been recorded in the northern Gulf of Mexico along the U. S. coast (Bayha et al. 2017). In the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, C. lactea Eschscholtz, 1829 has been mentioned, based on morphological features, but its taxonomic status remains uncertain (Morandini and Marques 2010). Another lineage, Chrysaora sp. 6, sensu Gómez Daglio and Dawson (2017), was discovered along the Caribbean coasts of Panama and Costa Rica suggesting the presence of undescribed diversity in nearby regions. Regional currents promote connections amongst the Gulf of Mexico, Central America and the Mexican Caribbean (Murphy et al. 1999) and this oceanographic continuity could explain the occurrence of multiple Chrysaora species in the region. Considering these uncertainties, we report all records as Chrysaora sp. until future integrative studies clarify their identities (Fig. 5 b, c).