DISCOVERY: Newly discovered jellyfish is a 24-eyed weirdo

There's a new species of "box" Jellyfish that was discovered recently near Hong Kong. Here's the story of this bizarre creature.

(Photo: Like other box jellyfish, the newfound species has 24 eyes arranged in clusters of six around its cubic body. (Image credit: Hong Kong Baptist University (screenshot from hongkongbaptistu on YouTube))

Newly discovered jellyfish is a 24-eyed weirdo related to the world's most venomous marine creature News

By Sascha Pare LIVESCIENCE,April 25, 2023

Researchers named the newfound species Tripedalia maipoensis, after Mai Po Nature Reserve in Hong Kong, where they discovered the transparent critter.

A juvenile box jellyfish of the newfound species has a transparent and colorless body, as well as 12 tentacles ending in small, paddle-like structures.

Like other box jellyfish, the newfound species has 24 eyes arranged in clusters of six around its cubic body.  Scientists in Hong Kong have discovered tiny, cube-shaped box jellyfish in a brackish shrimp pond that are completely unknown to science.

The diminutive jellies have a completely transparent and colorless body, or bell, as well as 12 tentacles ending in small, paddle-like structures that enable the critters to speed through water faster than most other jellyfish species.

Like other box jellies — a group of Cnidarians that includes the Australian box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri), the world’s most venomous marine animal, according to the National Ocean Service — the newly described jellies have 24 eyes arranged in clusters of six around its cubic bell.

"This box jellyfish connects the base of its tentacles and its bell with a flat base that looks like a boat paddle, making it distinct from other common jellyfish," Qiu Jianwen(opens in new tab), a professor in the Department of Biology at Hong Kong Baptist University who led the research, said in a video. "Another feature of the box jellyfish is that it has six eyes located on each side of its body."

Researchers named the newfound species Tripedalia maipoensis after Mai Po Nature Reserve  in Hong Kong, where they found it. They describe its features and relationship to other box jellies in a study published March 20 in the journal Zoological Studies.

T. maipoensis is the first-ever box jelly to be found in Chinese waters. It is unclear whether the half-inch-long (1.5 centimeters) animal can sting humans, but it may be venomous enough to stun tiny shrimp called Artemia. "It seemed to paralyze Artemia offered in the lab," Qiu told Live Science in an email. "But we did not touch the animal to feel the sting."