New records of Staurozoa from Australian coastal waters, with a description of a new species of Lucernariopsis Uchida, 1929 (Cnidaria, Staurozoa, Stauromedusae)

Four live species of Stauromedusae, including a new species (Depastromorpha africana, Lucernariopsis tasmaniensis sp. nov., Stenoscyphus inabai and Lipkea sp.) are described from the East coast of Tasmania and New South Wales, Australia. These medusae are the first staurozoan records for Tasmania and include three new records for Australia. Stauromedusae were found on the algae Caulerpa spp., Macrocystis pyrifera and rocky reef substratum covered by epibiota. Depastromorpha africana and L. tasmaniensis sp. nov. were abundant at few study sites and were categorized as spatially rare at the local scale of this study. Stenoscyphus inabai and Lipkea sp. were not encountered at the study sites so their exact range distribution could not be established. Their morphologies are compared in a key to Australian Stauromedusae including photographic evidence. Previously unpublished museum records and personal observations are also included, increasing the distribution of D. africana to New Zealand, South Australia and Tasmania and the genera Lucernariopsis and Lipkea to Australia. Morphological differences in the number and distribution of tentacle-like structures along the margin of the arms of Lipkea sp. and their congeners elsewhere suggest that they are new species of Stauromedusae, but collection and detailed examination is necessary to determine their identity. These results support increasing evidence that the distribution and diversity of Staurozoa are much greater than that currently recorded in the literature, especially in the Southern Hemisphere