Fried Egg Jellyfish, Phacellophora camtschatica

Fried Egg Jellyfish, Phacellophora camtschatica. Photograph taken underwater on the Thirty-mile Bank, Offshore San Diego, California, June 2024. Bell diameter approximately 30 cm (12 inches). Photograph courtesy of Bob Hillis, Ivins, Utah. Identification courtesy of Linsey Sala, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La  Jolla, California.

Phylogeny: The Fried-egg Jellyfish, Phacellophora camtschatica (Brandt, 1835), is a member of the Phacellophoridae Family of Jellyfish. The Fried Egg Jellyfish is the only member of the Phacellophoridae Family and the only member of the Phacellophora genus. The Fried Egg Jellyfish is also known as the Egg Yolk Jellyfish and in Mexico as Medusa Huevo Frito. Their common name is derived from the jellyfish’s resemblance to a fried egg when viewed from above. The Fried Egg Jellyfish is also the common name of a smaller jellyfish Cotylorhiza tuberculata, found in the Adriatic, Aegean and Mediterranean seas. The genus name Phacellophora comes from the Greek words meaning “bundle-bearing” and refers to the bundle of tentacles carried by this jellyfish. The species name camtschatica is a Latinized version of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, from where this species was first discovered.

Morphology: The bell of the Fried Egg Jelly is clear to milky white in color. The bell surrounds a yellowish gonad, which is visible through the bell. The margin of the bell is scalloped, having sixteen larger lobes, alternating with smaller lobes. Each lobe has a cluster of up to twenty-five tentacles. The oral arms are frilled and short. Fried Egg Jellyfish are relatively large, with the bell diameter being between 30 cm (12 inches) and 60 cm (2 feet 0 inches). The tentacles can extend as far as 5.0 m (19.7 feet). Fried Egg Jellyfish are similar in appearance to Lion’s Mane Jellyfish, Cyanea capillata, which has only eight lobes around the bell that is found within the cold, boreal waters of the Arctic, northern Atlantic, and northern Pacific Oceans.

Habitat and Distribution: In their polyp stage Fried Egg Jellyfish are benthic, but in their medusae stage they are generally pelagic, occasionally drifting into near shore waters or bays. In this stage they occupy the top 20 m (66 feet) of the water column. These jellyfish are found worldwide in polar to tropical seas. They are found in all Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean with the exception that they are absent from the northern Gulf of California. They are absent from the Tropical Western Atlantic.

Diet: Fried Egg Jellyfish feed primarily on other medusae jelly species, such as Moon Jellies of the Ulmaridae Family, which become entangled in the tentacles. The tentacles contain nematocysts that assist in the capture of prey and provide defense from predators.

Predators:  Fried Egg Jellyfish are preyed upon by sea birds, sea turtles, and over 50 species of fish.

Reproduction: In the medusa stage, the Fried Egg Jellyfish sexually reproduces via broadcast spawning, where the females capture floating sperm to fertilize their eggs. Asexual reproduction occurs in the polyp stage, where budding creates genetically identical offspring.

Ecosystem Interactions:  Fried egg Jellyfish often play host to commensal and parasitic hitchhikers including amphipods, crabs and fish. Sometimes several hundred amphipods and crabs can be found on a single individual.

Human Interaction: Fried Egg Jellyfish have a mild sting and are not considered dangerous to humans. They are not targeted by fisheries and have little impact on human activities. From a conservation perspective they have not been formally evaluated however they have are common with a wide distribution and should be consider to be of Least Concern.

Synonyms:  Callinema ornata, Cyanea ambiguum, and Phacellophora sicula.