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Stinging jellyfish

Classifying box jellyfish

Chirodropid jellyfish

Carybdeid jellyfish

Distribution & abundance

Life cycle

Feeding & venom

The sting

Irukandji syndrome

Preventing the sting

Future research

First aid

Other stinging jellyfish

Bluebottles & Pacific man-o-war

More information

 

 

Vision & movement

Unlike many jellyfish, the multiple-tentacled box jellyfish Chironex fleckeri is a fast and agile swimmer and is rarely ever found washed up on beaches. It can swim at up to 3 knots and manoeuvre around pylons and piers. Although Carukia barnesi is also a box jellyfish, it is not as proficient at swimming as Chironex fleckeri.

All cubozoans have eyes so that they can hunt prey and avoid objects in the water. Each jellyfish has 24 eyes clustered into four groups of six on each side of its box-shaped body. There are two types of eye in each cluster – two complex eyes similar to human eyes (with retinas, lenses and corneas) and two simple pit eyes and two slit eyes. Although jellyfish do not a have a brain (they have neurons concentrated in four nerve centres), recent studies indicate that they can form images.

Jellyfish also have organs called statocysts located below the eye clusters that help them maintain balance in the water. Inside each statocyst is a hard nodule called a statolith that is composed of calcium sulfate. In many species of box jellyfish, statoliths have daily growth rings and can be used for ageing them. It may also be possible to use statoliths to identify jellyfish species when their soft body parts are destroyed.


CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd

PO Box 772 Townsville
Queensland 4810 Australia
Telephone: 61 7 4729 8400
Facsimile: 61 7 4729 8499
Email: info@crcreef.com
Website: www.reef.crc.org.au

 

CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd was established and is supported under the Australian Government's Cooperative Research Centres Program. Its mission is to plan, fund and manage world-leading science for the sustainable use of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. CRC Reef is a joint venture between Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators, Australian Institute of Marine Science, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Great Barrier Reef Research Foundation, James Cook University, Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, Queensland Seafood Industry Association, Sunfish Queensland Inc. The University of Queensland is an associate member.