![]() These jellyfish are found around the world, but the most dangerous variety is usually found in the tropical Indo-Pacific region. The sea wasp jellyfish, a type of box jellyfish This helps them determine where to go, what to eat, and what is dangerous or safe. Instead, they rely on neurons that send signals throughout their bodies. Interestingly, box jellyfish do not have brains. This is likely due to the fact that they can more clearly see what’s ahead of them. ![]() They also swim faster and with more determination. ![]() Their increased sight allows them to navigate around obstacles in a way that other jellyfish can’t. The animals can see specific points of light due to the direction of the lenses. Halfway up the outer surface of the bell are their eyes, set in clusters called rhopalia. It is defined by a ring of nerves around the base of the jellyfish’s bell. The nervous system is more developed than other jellyfish species. Inside are a central stomach and four gastric pockets. The inside of the bell is divided into four equidistant septa. Underneath the bell is a manubrium, a mobile appendage that bears some resemblance to an elephant’s trunk, with a mouth at the tip. Usually, the jellyfish only weighs around four and a half pounds. The tentacles can grow to an impressive length of ten inches. The animal can grow up to eight inches along each side of the box, with a twelve-inch, or thirty centimeters, diameter. There, the jellyfish also has slim tentacles. There are three tentacles that are up to 10cm long at each of its four corners.The jellyfish has a squarish bell that boasts four pendulums, one on each corner. “It has a transparent and colourless body with an average length of 1.5cm. “Pedalia, a flat pedal-shaped structure at the base of each tentacle that looks like a boat paddle, allows box jellyfish to produce strong thrusts when they contract their bodies. The species are considered deadly because their tentacles are covered in “biological booby traps known as nematocysts - tiny darts loaded with poison,” NOS said.īox jellyfish are fast swimmers with tentacles like boat paddles which help them hunt prey, namely shrimp, and “faster than other kinds of jellyfish,” the HKBU statement said. Credit: HKBUĪ cousin of the Tripedalia maipoensis, the Australian box jellyfish is considered the most venomous marine animal in the world, according to the National Ocean Service. ![]() The newly discovered species can be distinguished by differently shaped canals which let water into the bell membrane. “In the new species, the velarial canals are biforked into multi-branches, which distinguishes them from other species of the same genus,” HKBU said in a statement announcing the discovery. Inside the membranous and muscular sheet - a velarium - which constricts the opening of the bell, there are canals in box jellyfish that run along the bell margins and allow water inside. What distinguishes the Tripedalia maipoensis from other species of the same genus is the formation of internal canals. The highly venomous find was discovered in a brackish shrimp pond, but is believed to also inhabit an adjacent estuary and wider coastal waters. Qiu and his colleagues wrote in the journal article that the “new species represents the fourth described species of Tripedaliidae, and the first record of the family in Chinese coastal waters”. “Box jellyfish are a small group of cnidarians with only 49 species reported worldwide,” he said. “We believe that this species is also distributed in the adjacent waters of the Pearl River Estuary as the gei wais are connected to the estuary through a tidal channel. The highly venomous find was discovered in a brackish shrimp pond, locally called “gei wai”, in the summers of 2020 to 2022.īut lead researcher and HKBU professor of the Department of Biology Qiu Jianwen said it could also be spread more widely. ![]() Researchers confirmed with genetic analysis that it is a new species of the box jellyfish, and published their findings in the international journal Zoological Studies in March. Researchers from the Hong Kong Baptist University discovered the 24-eyed jellyfish - Tripedalia maipoensis - while collecting samples in 2022 in the Mai Po Nature Reserve. Watch the latest News on Channel 7 or stream for free on 7plus > ![]()
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