A common local scyphozoan in the spring and summer months. Aurelia is one of the more recognizable of the local medusae. The medusa (jellyfish) stage is just one phase of the life history of this species. It lives in estuaries and bays as a small hydroid-like polyp called a "scyphistoma". Scyphistoma are capable of a form of asexual reproduction called budding. In the spring, the scyphistoma begins to pinch off into horizontal plate-like segments in a process called strobilation. Each segment forms into an immature medusa called an ephyrae. They stack up on the strobila at the end of the body stalk eventually breaking off to form independant medusa. The scyphistoma may live for several years, strobilating each spring.

Aurelia can attain sizes up to a foot across the bell. It has short tentacles which generally do not produce a sting in most people.

Barnes, R.D., Invertebrate Zoology, 1980, Saunders College and Holt, Rinehart and Winston.