Genus Pandeopsis Kramp, 1959

Pandeopsis Kramp, 1959b: 39;

type species Pandeopsis scutigera Kramp, 1959 by original designation.

Diagnosis: Pandeid medusae with wide, large manubrium and quadratic base, with long mesenteries; gonads smooth, sheet-like, covering interradial surface of manubrium, usually with a few dark spots in living or recently fixed specimens; mouth with four simple lips; up to 16 marginal tentacles and up to 24 rudimentary bulbs that may have a very short tentacle stump; tentacular cirri absent; tentacle bulbs without spur, with abaxial ocelli.

Hydroid known only from rearing; colony with common hydrorhiza giving numerous hydranths with one whorl of 3-6 filiform tentacles; medusa buds unknown.

Remarks: The only tangible difference of Pandeopsis and Merga is the more quadratic stomach base in the former. While some Pandeopsis specimens examined here indeed had a wide, quadratic stomach base (Fig. 7C), the difference to Merga is not always distinct and both genera could therefore be regarded as congeneric. The 16S phylogenetic tree (Fig. 8) suggests that the two genera are not closely related, but this needs confirmation with additional markers.