Aurelia undetermined

Aurelia spp. Distribution See Fig. 4, Mendoza-Becerril et al. (2025). Notes Although some records from literature, the citizen-science platform iNaturalist and samples collected have referred to Aurelia species, using names such as A. aurita (Linnaeus, 1758), A. marginalis Agassiz, 1862 or A. coerulea von Lendenfeld, 1884, all occurrences from the Mexican Caribbean are here reported simply as Aurelia sp. However, the use of Aurelia spp. in this section reflects the likelihood that multiple species of Aurelia are present in the region. This decision was made because of the absence of voucher specimens and on the well-known difficulty of distinguishing species within this genus, using only morphological data. As noted by Lawley et al. (2021), morphological variability in Aurelia often obscures diagnostic boundaries, making reliable identification particularly challenging without molecular data. Accordingly, these records are counted as a single species in the checklist, although they may represent more than one species. Aurelia aurita and A. coerulea have been confirmed genetically in north-eastern North America and along the Atlantic coast of Europe, but molecular data for these species are still lacking in the Mexican Caribbean. In nearby regions, at least six other Aurelia species have been identified: A. insularia Lawley et al., 2021 (Key Largo, Florida), A. marginalis (Tabasco, Mexico; Alabama and Florida, USA), A. montyi Lawley et al., 2021 and A. rara Lawley et al., 2021 (Alabama and Florida, USA), A. smithsoniana Lawley et al., 2021 (Bocas del Toro, Panama) and Aurelia sp. 18 (Louisiana, USA) (Lawley et al. 2021). Some of these species even occur together in the same areas, possibly due to ocean currents that connect Central America, the Gulf of Mexico and the Mexican Caribbean (Murphy et al. 1999) and may facilitate the transport of medusae or planulae across regions. Given these regional connections and the unresolved taxonomy of the genus, the records are reported here as Aurelia sp. (Fig. 5 e, f).