Revision of Beroidae (Ctenophora) in the southern seas of Europe: systematics and distribution based on genetics and morphology Author Shiganova, Tamara A. Author Abyzova, Galina A. text Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 2022 2021-08-21 194 297 322 journal article 2869 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab021 9ad2cd5f-60d4-4c02-819f-fea89dda74f7 0024-4082 5799206 A93B7D7A-1F8E-4E59-B86D-67814E01F797

Table 3. Morphological features of studied Beroe species

Morphological	Beroe ovata	Beroe mitrata	Beroe forskalii	Beroe pseudocucumis	Beroe cucumis
characteristic
In addition, we scrutinized areas of occurrence of studied species on global scale and their tolerance to environmental conditions (Table 4).
Adult length	50–160	60 and>	Up to 150	50 and up to 160	50–150
range, mm
Length/width ratio	1.1–1.2	1.3–1.7	1.75–2.00	2.0–3.0	1.6–2.2
Body shape	Mitre-shaped body, aboral	Mitre-shaped body aboral	Shaped like a compressed	Long-oval body, aboral	A body shape is strait
	end is rounded, oral end	end round to slightly	cone	end is rounded, as well	or slightly oval in
	nearly flat, and wider	taper.		as oral part	oral part and oval
	than width in adult	Oral end is slightly rounded			from aboral side
Flattening in	Very flattened body	Body flattened in	Extremely flattened body	Body from slightly	Body more flattened
paragastal plate		cross-section		flattened to nearly cir-	in the paragastral
				cular in cross-section	plane than
					B. pseudocucums
Stomodaeum	Stomodaeum is large	Stomodaeum is large	Stomodeum is large	Stomodeum is volu-	Stomodeum is large
			occupies large part	minous and occupies up	occupied about 3/4
			of the body	to 4/5 width of the body	width of the body
Colour	Pink to brownish in adult	Mostly whitish	Fairy transparent with	Very transparent from	Slightly pink or pink
			rose and darker red	transparent to pink
			along the comb rows
Diverticulae in	Meridional canals have	Meridional canals with	Meridional canals with	Meridional canals have	Meridional canals
meridional	network of anastomosing	many branches that all	dense network of many	network of dense	have network of
canals	diverticulae, which con-	bend toward the mouth.	branches that anasto-	diverticulae, which	diverticulae but not
	nect with paragastal	The numbers of branches	mose with each other.	do not connect with	so dense, which do
	canals	of meridional canals in-		paragastal canals and	not connect with
		crease with the growth.		do not anastomose	paragastal canals
		They are simple, showing			and do not have
		only a few furcations and			anastomoses.
		no anastomosis occurs			Along every canal
		among them Meridional			upper running a row
		canals are extremely flex-			of red cells
		ible and can even turn
		itself inside-out
characteristic
Length of comb	8 comb rows running about	8 comb rows of two lengths	8 comb rows of nearly	8 comb rows running	8 comb rows running
rows	¾ of the distance from	from the middle of the	equal length running	from about 3/4 of the	about 3/4 of the
	the aboral pole towards	body running about 2/3	from about 3/4 of the	distance from the ab-	distance from the
	the mouth	of the distance from the	distance from the ab-	oral pole towards the	aboral pole towards
		aboral pole towards the	oral pole towards the	mouth	the mouth
		mouth.	mouth with high num-
			bers of densely packed
			comb rows.
			There are 8 long plates
			above comb rows, which
			cover them. This is
			specific only for this
			species.
Structure of aboral	Polar plate surrounded the	Aboral end is round to	Aboral part is sharply	Aboral pole is fringed	At the aboral end two
pole and mouth	sense organ at aboral	slightly tapered and oral	conical; there is axial	with a row of long,	oval polar-plate are
	pole, which is not fringed	end broadly rounded	funnel-tube. The aboral	branched papillae.	surrounding the
	a row of branched pa-	with nearly semi-circular	pole is fringed with a	There is axial funnel	sense organ at the
	pillae. Oral end is al-	mouth	row of long, branched	tube.	oval aboral pole, and
	most straight and can		papillae.		is fringed with a row
	be wider than the body		Oral part is oval with		of short branched
	width in adults		broad, rounded wide		papillae
			mouth, expanded on the
entire oral part