Tamoya Box Jellyfish
The Tamoya box jellyfish (Tamoya haplonema) is a box jellyfish of the western Atlantic and Mediterranean that can deliver a painful sting. It is a larger box jelly, with bell heights of 10 centimeters or more.
The Tamoya box jellyfish (Tamoya haplonema) is a box jellyfish of the western Atlantic and Mediterranean that can deliver a painful sting. It is a larger box jelly, with bell heights of 10 centimeters or more.
🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Tamoya Box Jellyfish in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Cnidaria+Ctenophora lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.
Strong Swimmers
Like other cubozoans, Tamoya swims actively using pulsing contractions of a muscular bell and can steer with its complex eyes. It hunts fish and crustaceans.
Stings
The stinging cells of the tentacles cause intense pain, welts and sometimes systemic symptoms. Specimens drift to coasts in some seasons. See Sea Wasp.
Poorly Studied
The biology of this species is not well known compared with its Australian relatives. See Mediterranean Box Jelly.
Tamoya Box Jellyfish at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Tamoya haplonema |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Cnidaria |
| Class | Cubozoa |
| Order | Carybdeida |
| Family | Tamoyidae |
| Field Guide group | Cnidaria + Ctenophora (Radiata & Jellies) |
| Diagnostic feature (Field Guide) | Tall, translucent, four-sided bell up to 9 cm with flattened blade-like tentacle bases at each corner and long trailing tentacles; hunts small fish in coastal Atlantic waters. |
| Class | Cubozoa |
| Bell height | About 10 centimeters |
See Also
- Sea Wasp — a dangerous box jelly
- Mediterranean Box Jelly — a smaller box jelly