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The subject of foraging strategies covers a lot of ground, from diets and prey selectivity to models of encounter rates and predatory behavior (e.g. Gerritsen and Strickler 1977). Our chief concern is to describe what is known about feeding in medusae, including both diet (favorite foods) and elements of the feeding behavior itself. What is important to a weakly swimming, tentaculate, predator?

In most studies of feeding in medusae, hydromedusae are grouped together with scyphomedusae, siphonophores, and sometimes even ctenophores. Clearly, though differing in complexity and size, many elements of hunting will be highly similar between the hydromedusae, scyphomedusae, and cubomedusae because of their similar body shape. The section on foraging strategies will regard the medusae as a whole, though crossing taxonomic boundaries, as will the discussion of locomotion and energetics.

Figure 3.14 Cubomedusae. (a) Cross section through the bell of Carybdea; (b) longitudinal section through Tripedalia; (c) the Chirodropid medusa Carybdea. (d) The Chirodropid medusa Chiropsalmus.

Sources: (a–c) Conant (1898); (d) Redrawn from Mayer (1910), plate 47.