Thistle-shaped Depastrum cyathiforme was last seen in France in 1976, but has now been found on South Uist
www.theguardian.com
For nearly 50 years there was no trace of
Depastrum cyathiforme - a stalked jellyfish that resembles a thistle flower.
The distinctive jellyfish was feared extinct after being last spotted in Roscoff, northern France, in 1976.
But a holidaymaker who was rock-pooling on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides found four of the creatures, which attach themselves to rocks rather like anemones, and took what turned out to be the first-ever photographs of the species, previously only known from historic drawings and paintings.
Its rediscovery, revealed by British Wildlife magazine, has been confirmed by a follow-up search that successfully located another individual, offering hope that there is a stable population present on the Scottish island.
In the 19th century the stalked jellyfish was rare, but often recorded in south-western British waters by naturalists, including the legendary marine biologist Philip Henry Gosse,
who named it the 'goblet lucernaria'. But in the mid-20th century it vanished from British seashores, having been last found on Lundy, Devon, in 1954.
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