Watch: Hong Kong Scientists Discover Box Jellyfish With 24 Eyes
NDTV
The transparent creature was found in Hong Kong's Mai Po Nature Reserve, where the new species, Tripedalia maipoensis, was given its name.
Scientists at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) have discovered tiny, cube-shaped, 24-eyed box jellyfish in the Mai Po Nature Reserve.
The research team that was led by Professor Qiu Jianwen collected the jellyfish samples from a brackish shrimp pond, locally called "gei wai," in the Mai Po Nature Reserve during the summers of 2020 to 2022, and they found that the samples contained a new species.
Researchers named the newfound species Tripedalia maipoensis after Mai Po Nature Reserve.
"We named the new species Tripedalia maipoensis to reflect its type locality-where the new species was first found. 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 are connected to the estuary through a tidal channel," Professor Qiu said.
