| 英文摘要 |
We conducted 26 field investigations and collected over 250 specimens of 20 species of jellyfish and 2 species of thaliaceans in the coastal waters around Taiwan from June to November, 2006. Furthermore, we searched and reviewed many previous papers and pictures of related jellyfishes from websites. A freshwater jellyfish, Craspedacusta sowerbyi, was found in a small pond in Miaoli mountain. The water temperature, salinity, DO and pH of the pond were 26.4℃, 0.15, 2.26 mg/L and 7.46, respectively, and the density of jellyfish was about 20 ind./m2, with bell diameters ranging from 0.5~1 cm. More species of jellyfish were found in the northeastern waters (15 species) than in the southwestern waters (6 species) of Taiwan. In the waters of northeastern Taiwan, higher abundances and species richness of jellyfish were found in the Yeliu area, and Pelagia noctiluca was the most abundant among all jellyfish species. Moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) was the most common species in the waters of southwestern Taiwan, and several thousands occurred at Kaohsiung harbour and Love River in October. A lot of small hydromedusae (0.5-1 cm in body diameter) were also found in grouper larvae rearing ponds in the Linbien area in high densities (30~40 inds/m2), which caused serious damage to the fish. Moreover, we found a giant thaliacean species, Thetys vagina, in the waters of southwestern Taiwan, with a body length up to 16.5 cm. This is probably the first record of this species in Taiwan. |
