24-Eyed Monster! New Box Jellyfish Species Discovered In China

A team from Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) has discovered a new monster of the deep a box jellyfish with 24 eyes found in the Mai Po Nature Reserve in Hong Kong. The new jellyfish species, which belongs to the family Tripedaliidae, was named Tripedalia maipoensis by the research team. It is the first discovery of a new box jellyfish species from the waters of China. The team collected the jellyfish samples from a brackish shrimp pond in the Mai Po Nature Reserve during the summers of 2020 to 2022 and they found that the samples contained a new species. The jellyfish has a transparent and colourless body with an average length of 1.5 cm and it has three tentacles that are up to 10 cm long at each of its four corners. Like other box jellyfish, Tripedalia maipoensis has 24 eyes. The 24 eyes are equally divided into four groups. In each group of eyes, the researchers believe that two of them have lenses that enable image-forming, while the other four can only sense light. Professor Qiu said the discovery, “highlights the rich diversity of marine life in Hong Kong and even the whole of China”