Between the lobes are four auricles, gelatinous projections fringed with cilia, that produce feeding currents that help draw in the microscopic prey.

These cilia are arranged on transverse plates and beat in synchrony, giving the animal its iridescent appearance.

[3] Bolinopsis infundibulum occurs in the northern Atlantic, its range extending from the Arctic to the Mediterranean Sea in the east and the Gulf of Maine in the west.

Weakly swimming prey such as fish eggs and fry, copepod larvae, gastropod veligers, rotifers and other tiny zooplankton are then trapped by the tentilla and ingested.

This sudden population collapse is believed to be caused by predation by another species of comb jelly, Beroe cucumis.