Newly Discovered Box Jellyfish Species in Hong Kong Highlights Rich Diversity of Marine Life in Chinese Waters

A team of researchers from a university in Hong Kong announced that they had identified a previously unknown species of box jellyfish at Mai Po Nature Reserve in Hong Kong. According to Reuters, this species is venomous, and its discovery marks the first time it has been found in the waters of China.

Discovering the New Box Jellyfish Species

A new species of box jellyfish was discovered in the waters of China by a team of researchers from Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), Ocean Park Hong Kong, WWF-Hong Kong, and the University of Manchester.

The team collected jellyfish samples from a brackish shrimp pond in the Mai Po Nature Reserve for two years, from 2020 to 2022, and discovered a new species named Tripedalia maipoensis or Mai Po Tripedalia by the researchers. This marked the first discovery of a new box jellyfish species in China's waters.

The team's discovery was published in the study, titled "A New Species of Box Jellyfish (Cnidaria: Tripedaliidae: Tripedalia) from Hong Kong, China," in the journal Zoological Studies in March.

Professor Qiu Jianwen from the Department of Biology at HKBU, who is the research team's leader, said that the new species was named after its type locality, where it was first discovered.

Although the new species is currently only found in Mai Po, China.org reported that it is also prevalent in the neighboring waters of the Pearl River Estuary in Guangdong province, as the brackish shrimp farms are connected to the estuary via a tidal canal.

Qiu noted that box jellyfish are a tiny group with just 49 species identified worldwide and are little known in Chinese maritime regions. According to Qiu, the finding of the new species in Mai Po, a reasonably well-studied location in Hong Kong, demonstrates the tremendous diversity of marine life in Hong Kong and China.

The team's research was carried out in collaboration with Ocean Park Hong Kong and WWF-Hong Kong, and the samples were collected from a brackish shrimp pond in the Mai Po Nature Reserve.

The discovery of the new species emphasizes the necessity of continued study into marine biodiversity in Hong Kong and the surrounding areas and conservation efforts to maintain the region's distinctive marine ecosystems.

About the Newly Discovered Box Jellyfish Species

The recently discovered Tripedalia maipoensis is a new box jellyfish species belonging to the family Tripedaliidae. As per Phys.org, it is the first to be discovered in China's waters and the fourth described species of Tripedaliidae worldwide.

The jellyfish has a translucent and colorless body with three tentacles up to 10 cm long at each of its four corners and an average length of 1.5 cm. Furthermore, it possesses 24 eyes that are evenly divided into four groups, with each group of six eyes positioned inside a sensory depression known as a rhopalium on either side of the bell.

The researchers assume that two of each group's six eyes can produce images while the other four can merely detect light. A velarium, a membranous and muscular layer that constricts the aperture of the bell, is also present in box jellyfish. The velarial canals in the new species are biforked into multi-branches, distinguishing it from other species in the same genus.

Using morphological and genetic approaches, the researchers compared Tripedalia maipoensis samples to those of other closely related species. They discovered that the new species is more diverse than Tripedalia cystophora. These closely similar species have been widely documented throughout the tropics and subtropics, including Jamaica, Florida, Singapore, Australia, and India.