Asva Abadila Rouhan XII IPA 3 (22)

The Life Cycle of Aurelia Aurita

Aurelia Aurita (also known as moon jellyfish) is the member of Coloenterata
phylum, Scyphozia class. This jellyfish’s shape is like half ball and its length ia about 25-
40 cm. Just like other jellyfish, Aurelia is also transparent. It eats small organism, such as
fish egg, protozoa, and larvae. It lives in shallow sea waters, from 70o NL – 40o SL. It
travels via “jetting”. It undergoes body transformation, called metagenesis. This
metagenesis phase is divided into 5 ; zygot, planula, scifistoma, efira, and medusa or
adult jellyfish.
Aurelia Aurita starts its life from zygot. The zygot will develop into larvae which
has cilia, and called planula. Planula will swim and attach on appropriate places. After
attaching, cilia will be detached and planula will grow up to scifistoma. Scifistoma will
produce sprouts so they look like pile of plates. Then, all buds will be released starting
from the top and it will become young medusa, which is called efira. Furthermore, efira
will grow into the adult medusa. In its life, the medusa phase is more dominant than the
earlier phases.
If the adult Aurelia Aurita mate, the life cycle will begin again.