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White Spotted Jellyfish

Scientific Name

Phyllorhiza punctata von Lendenfeld 1884 (ITIS)

Common Name

White spotted jellyfish, Australian spotted jellyfish

Native To

Australia and the Philippines (Graham et al. 2003)

Date of U.S. Introduction

First discovered in 1981 in California (Carlton and Geller 1993)

Means of Introduction

Probably entered from the Pacific Ocean through the Panama Canal on the hulls of ships (Graham et al. 2003)

Impact

Preys on native species; negatively impacts shrimp industry by clogging nets and damaging fishing equipment (Ocaña-Luna et al. 2010)

Current U.S. Distribution

Southeastern U.S. coastal region

Australian spotted jellyfish
Image use policy

Australian spotted jellyfish

Credit

Photo by Harriet Perry; Gulf Coast Research Laboratory

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Selected Resources

The section below contains highly relevant resources for this species, organized by source.

Partnership
Federal Government
Professional
Citations