User:Ebroniarczyk/Mastigias

Synapomorphies
For reproduction, Mastigias pupua has adopted a mono-mode reproductive strategy that develops only free-swimming buds(1). Mastigias organisms also are able to produce swimming frustules, a hard and porous cell wall covering diatoms(4).

Natural Habitat
The genus Mastigias is native to the western and central Indo-Pacific, from Australia to Japan, and Micronesia to the Indian Ocean(2). However, most Mastigias organisms choose to live in landlocked marine lakes(10). Behavioral differences among this genus do occur with varying habitats. Marine lake Mastigias' swim slower than their oceanic ancestors(3). The Mastigias genus may have to adapt to a habitat with warmer temperatures. With growing temperature deviation above the average, organisms within this genus have seen a decrease in population(6) as well as growing mortality rates(8).

Interactions
Mastigias jellyfish have a symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae living in host gastrodermal cells where they exhibit phased division (5). The Mastigias genus of jellyfish symbiotically produce ephyrae only in the presence of Symbiodinium, in a process called stobilation (7).