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Chironex fleckeri
Sign in to saveAlso known as Medusa Australiana, Australian box jelly
species of cnidarian
OverviewAI-generated
*Chironex fleckeri* is a species of marine organism classified within the phylum Cnidaria and class Cubozoa. It belongs to the order Chirodropida and the family Chirodropidae. The species was described by Southcott in 1956 and is currently accepted as a valid taxon. Its parent taxon is *Chironex*. Common names for this organism include the Australian box jellyfish, viéspora de mar, and morska osa.
Records of *Chironex fleckeri* have been documented in Australia, Mexico, and the Philippines. Specimens are held by institutions including CAS, USNM, QM, NMV, and SAMA. The species has 212 recorded occurrences and 92 associated records.
Synthesized by Vinony from 29 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, GBIF, Gbif Occ, WoRMS, iDigBio, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Species
Australian box jellyfish
SPECIES
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumCnidaria
- ClassCubozoa
- OrderChirodropida
- FamilyChirodropidae
"Chironex fleckeri is one of the simplest organisms. The bi-radially symmetrical body has well developed tissues and specialized cells. The outer covering of ectoderm made of milky slime substance and an inner layer of endoderm makes it displobastic. It has an organic exoskeleton and hydrostatic skeleton and it is an encephalized organism with a non-cellular mesoglea separating the two layers and spreading to a vast bulk of its body which aids its buoyancy. With only a single opening (the mouth and entrance to the cavity), the body encompasses a single sac-like body space called the Gastro-vascular ..It is called the box jellyfish because its transverse section appears to be squared-umbrella -shape with its tentacles at the corners of the box margin. The edge of the umbrella turns inwards forming a circular shaped structure called Velarium. It possesses four dark spots (primitive eyes) that are sensitive to light. These enable it to avoid colluding with foreign objects, detection of foods, and orientation for swimming. It has a simple but well-developed and sophisticated nervous and sensory systems but no specialized excretory respiratory and circulatory organs since most of its li
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 92
- Family
- Chirodropidae
- Collections
- CAS, USNM, QM, NMV, SAMA, AM
- Recorded in
- Australia, Mexico, Philippines
Wikidata facts
Show 4 more facts
- taxon rank
- species
- Commons category
- Chironex fleckeri
- taxon name
- Chironex fleckeri
- taxon common name
- morska osa
via Wikidata · CC0
~10 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Chironex fleckeri, commonly known as the Australian box jelly and nicknamed the sea wasp, is a species of extremely venomous box jellyfish found in coastal waters from northern Australia and Papua New Guinea to Indonesia, East Timor, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam. It has been described as "the most lethal jellyfish in the world", with at least 64 known deaths in Australia from 1884 to 2021.
Notorious for its sting, C. fleckeri has tentacles up to 3 m (10 ft) long covered with millions of cnidocytes which, on contact, release microscopic darts delivering an extremely powerful venom. Being stung commonly results in excruciating pain, and if the sting area is significant, an untreated victim may die in two to five minutes. The amount of venom in one animal is said to be enough to kill 60 adult humans.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Chironex fleckeri” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.