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:
“Artists must be sacrificed to their art. Like bees, they must put their lives into the sting they give.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I perceive I have not really understood any thing, not a single
object, and that no man ever can,
Nature here in sight of the sea taking advantage of me to dart upon me and sting me,
Because I have dared to open my mouth to sing at all.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)