It’s out-of-the-box scary.
The Tripedaliidae jellyfish species has welcomed its fourth family member — a new 24-eyed creature that measures just over a half-inch long and carries a remarkably dangerous sting.
Discovered in Hong Kong’s Mai Po Nature Reserve, it is officially named Tripedalia maipoensis and is in the same family as the Australian box jellyfish — which is considered to be the most venomous marine animal in the world.
It’s the first time a new box jellyfish species has been found in the area.
The jellyfish has a transparent and colorless cube-shaped body with three tentacles — measuring about four inches long — at the base of each “corner.”
The ends of its tentacles are flat and pedal-shaped structures — similar to a boat paddle — which allows it to swim faster than other jellyfish.
Its 24 eyes are equally divided into four groups, each containing six peepers.
The findings of the research, led by a team from Hong Kong Baptist University, were published in the international academic journal Zoological Studies at the beginning of the year.
“We named the new species Tripedalia maipoensis to reflect its type locality — where the new species was first found,” explained Qiu Jianwen, a professor in the Department of Biology at HKBU.
Researchers from wildlife organizations WWF Hong Kong and Ocean Park Hong Kong, as well as the University of Manchester, collected samples from a brackish-water shrimp pond in the nature reserve during the summer months of 2020, 2021 and 2022.
When testing the samples, they found a species they hadn’t seen before.
“Although it is currently known only in Mai Po, we believe that this species is also distributed in the adjacent waters of the Pearl River Estuary, as the gei wais (shrimp ponds) are connected to the estuary through a tidal channel,” he said.
Qiu said the discovery of Tripedalia maipoensis in Hong Kong highlights the “rich diversity of marine life” in the region.
