Craspedacusta sowerbii or peach blossom jellyfish is a freshwater jellyfish in the phylum Cnidaria.
These can be seen late in the summer in Power's lake CT. I placed a few in a spare tissue culture flask
from the lab in order to take a few photographs of these interesting and unusual creatures.
It is one of many jellyfish that are also known as hydromedusae. Hydromedusan jellyfish differ from
scyphozoan jellyfish because they have a muscular, shelf-like structure called a velum on the ventral
surface, attached to the bell margin. Originally from the Yangtze basin in China, C. sowerbii is an
invasive species now found throughout the world in bodies of fresh water. They do have stinging cells
but due to their small size they generally cannot sting through the relatively thick skin of humans.