This beautiful photo is a moon jelly {Aurelia aurita} adorned with brittle stars {Ophiocnemis marmorata}. It looks like exquisite decorations on an ethereal creature, but in reality it’s potentially a scene of parasitic thievery!
These brittle stars and moon jellies occur widely throughout the Indo-Pacific from Japan to India.
In a fascinating post on his Echinoblog, marine biologist Christopher Mah summarizes a study of the relationship between jellies and brittle stars, which revealed a potentially kleptoparasitic relationship. The study indicated that most of the brittle stars’ food seemed to come from planktonic sources, and not from the moon jelly’s tissues. The authors suggest the brittle stars aren’t just hitching a ride on the moon jellies, but rather they’re kleptoparasites!
“In other words, they take food directly away from the jellyfish out of the mouth or the oral arms, stealing or scavenging food from the jellyfish…” ~Christopher Mah
Oceanwire 
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