Citizen science online platforms are increasingly making important sources of biological information available at the click of a button, allowing the interaction of volunteers and scientists to report and identify the world’s diversity. In this work, we combined the data available in citizen science platforms (iNaturalist and GelAvista) and the effort and collaboration of a diverse team of scuba-divers, scientists, and underwater photographers to report for the first time the presence of the stauromedusa Lipkea (Cnidaria: Staurozoa) in Portugal. Based on DNA (COI and 16S), we identified the species as Lipkea ruspoliana. However, the marginal lappets of some Portuguese specimens are similar to those of Lipkea sturdzii, a species described based on a single specimen in 1893 and never reported again. These results suggest that L. sturdzii is a synonym of L. ruspoliana, although further taxon and habitat sampling for genetic studies and investigations of intraspecific morphological variation are necessary. In addition, we provided data on species ecology, reviewed the records of Staurozoa from Portugal, and mapped the world geographic distribution of Lipkea. Staurozoa is a cryptic group of cnidarians, and Lipkea seems to be a particularly rare genus. Citizen science has proved to be a valuable contribution to studies on the group, enabling biological discussions that otherwise would be more challenging.

公民科学在线平台越来越多地通过单击按钮即可获得重要的生物信息来源，从而允许志愿者和科学家进行互动，以报告和识别世界的多样性。在这项工作中，我们结合了公民科学平台（iNaturalist 和 GelAvista）中可用的数据以及由水肺潜水员、科学家和水下摄影师组成的多元化团队的努力和协作，首次报告了 stauromedusa Lipkea 的存在（刺胞动物门：Staurozoa），产于葡萄牙。根据 DNA（COI 和 16S），我们将该物种鉴定为Lipkea ruspoliana。然而，一些葡萄牙标本的边缘垂片与Lipkea Sturdzii的边缘垂片相似，该物种在 1893 年根据单个标本进行了描述，但从未再次报道过。这些结果表明L. Sturdzii是L. ruspoliana的同义词，尽管需要进一步进行分类单元和栖息地采样以进行遗传研究和种内形态变异调查。此外，我们还提供了物种生态学数据，回顾了葡萄牙的Staurozoa记录，并绘制了Lipkea的世界地理分布图。 Staurozoa 是刺胞动物门中的一个神秘类群，而Lipkea似乎是一个特别罕见的属。事实证明，公民科学对该群体的研究做出了宝贵贡献，使生物学讨论成为可能，否则将更具挑战性。