Sting
The average jellyfish has stingers only on its tentacles, but the Irukandji also has stingers on its bellpiece. Biologists have yet to discover the purpose of this unique characteristic. The hypothesis is that the feature enables the jellyfish to be more likely to catch its prey of small fish.
A jellyfish stinger (nematocyst) works like a long sock turned inside out and coiled like a spring. When the stingers are triggered, they are pulled right side out and uncoiled in a fraction of a second, launching themselves into the flesh of the victim that touched the jellyfish. These millions of microscopic, prolonged stingers then secrete venom from its tip, which causes a delayed pain reaction. When the enemy pulls away, the stingers are torn off the tentacles of the jellyfish, and they remain in the body of the victim.
Irukandji jellyfish differ from other box jellyfish species in that they have the ability to fire stingers from the tips and inject venom. Currently, it is not known whether this is for some special purpose.
Read more about this topic: Irukandji Jellyfish
Famous quotes containing the word sting:
“Jim said bees wouldn’t sting idiots; but I didn’t believe that, because I had tried them lots of times myself, and they wouldn’t sting me.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Not to be cowardly when it comes to our own actions! Not to leave them in the lurch!—The sting of conscience is indecent.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“O conscience, upright and stainless, how bitter a sting to thee is a little fault!”
—Dante Alighieri (1265–1321)