Impurest's Guide to Animals #128 - Common Kingslayer

Well things have been going toxic in the political environment as well as elsewhere all around the world. Last week we saw an adorable slice of British wildlife known as the Pied Wagtail. This week’s animal is smaller, deadlier and more disturbing in almost very way, hope you guys enjoy.

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Issue #128 – Common Kingslayer

Kingdom – Animalia

Phylum – Cnidara

Class – Cubazoa

Order – Carybeida

Family – Tamoyidae

Genus – Malo

Species – kingi

Related Species – The Common Kingslayer is one of the four box jellyfish species found in the genus Malo (1)

Range – The Common Kingslayer is found in the shallow waters of Queensland and the Northern Territories

King Slayer

The Common Kingslayer is a tiny jellyfish with a bell width of only 5mm, with four trailing tentacles which can reach almost a meter in length. Unlike most jellyfish, the box jellyfish have true eyes equipped with lenses, corneas and retinas allowing them to see actual images rather than just tell the difference between areas of light and dark (2). This acute vision is supported by an advanced nervous system, allowing for them to move at speeds of up to 2m per second.

Like the rest of the box jellyfish, the Common Kingslayer is an active predator, which pursues prey rather than being simple drag-net predators like other species of jellyfish. Prey is found in the plankton and immobilised by venom firing nemacyst cells located in the long stinging tentacles. In addition to the stinging tentacles, the jellyfish of the genus Malo have stinging cells arranged across the bell thus increasing the danger these box jellyfish possess to human swimmers. In fact the name Common Kingslayer is a morbid tribute to Robert King, an American tourist who was the first recorded person to die from exposure to the jellyfish’s venom (3).

The Common Kingslayer can breed both sexually and a-sexually, with the adults able to swap genders. Regardless of gender, the adults release eggs or sperm into the water, with the fertilised embryos growing into a polyp network, with each body joined to the others by thin feeding tubes. After about a year, the polyps bud off to form into tiny free swimming sexual medusae.

Terrors of Toxicology #1 – Irikandji Syndrome

The Irikandji Aboriginal tribe used to live in an area known as Palm Cove in an area just North of Cairns in Queensland. When these aboriginal tribesman went into the water to go fishing they often came into contact with a burning sensation attributed to a seemingly unseen enemy. This ‘Irikandji Syndrome’ was first witnessed by outside eyes in 1953 by Hugo Flecker, an Australian toxicologist and natural historian, who later identified the culprit as a small jellyfish, one he named Chironex fleckeri (4).

In addition to C. fleckeri several other species of box jellyfish have a similar type of venom including all the species found within the genus Malo. While the venom is indeed lethal, it does have a weird effect of those people who survive the initial toxic attack on their bodies. In addition to cramps, sweating and vomiting the venom has an unusual side effect of fostering a feeling of doom in the victim. This particular effect is down to a group of catecholamiens found within the toxin that start up the adrenal response, but instead of being a temporary hit, the victim is constantly on the edge of the flight or fight response until the chemical is denatured.

Just to add one more terrible effect to a bouquet of nastiness, the Irikandji venom contains a range of sodium channel blockers, ones that fire the pain sensors in the nervous system constantly. This effect has been stated that, on a scale of one to ten, reaches a level of twelve, and is comparable to that of child birth, albeit child birth that lasts a week. Interestingly there are only two recorded direct fatalities from Irikandji syndrome, the venom simulates at least fifty fatal brain haemorrhages a year, and possibly even more due to misdiagnosis due to the small size of the majority of the jellyfish responsible for the envenomation.

Bibliography

1 -www.arkive.org

2 - http://www.livescience.com/7243-jellyfish-human-eyes.html

3 -"Killer jelly named after victim". Cairns Post. February 26, 2008

4 - Seymour, Jamie; Carrette, Teresa. "Identification of cubozoans responsible for causing Irukandji syndrome". James Cook University.

Picture References

1 - https://featuredcreature.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/tumblr_m39vfpJuOX1rn3wcfo1_500.jpg

2 - http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/blogs/cache/file/A43D4DE4-5338-4360-99D98E398211EC62_agenda.jpg?w=600&h=335

3 - https://loosejaws.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/sea-wasp-chironex-fleckeri-highly-dr-david-wachenfeld.jpg

Talk about a sting in the well tentacles. And if you think that was scary just wait until you see what comes scuttling out of the depths. Until then make sure to critic, comment and suggest future issues as well as making sure you check past issues in Impurest’s Bestiary.

Many Thanks

Impurest Cheese

Want more IGTA? For something big and terrifying check out the monstrous Stygiomedusa by clicking here, or if you want something small and unkillable, click here to see the Immortal Jellyfish.

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To the death of the King...

@impurestcheese: Wow. Cool stuff. I surprised there isn't a comic villain or a horror movie based on these guys. pain receptors stimulated. Feelings of impending doom. It's just the type of thing a hero needs to overcome before socking "the Evil Jellyfish!" in the jaw.

Of course being named jelly fish may have something to do with it.

As usual, good read, Cheese.

@risingbean: Yeah I'm surprised it hasn't been picked up on more. But yes, being 90% water doesn't help their case at being super villains

@impurestcheese: It's not like that has been a problem for Hydroman. that guy should be cooling people off in summer, and here he is giving Spider-Man a headache.

Looks nice to chew.... Ahem. I mean, looks rather interesting.

Nice one cheese. (wink)

The genus Malo? That's "mean" in Spanish. :)

That is pretty weird about the swimming.

That's wild.

@impurestcheese: Box Jellyfish are mighty smart, all things considered :P

Eh, still like them more than bluebottles.

@blueecho: Well there's always going to be one animal (or a group) that bucks the trend, it's Mother Nature's way of giving zoologists and their ilk the middle finger

@cbishop: I didn't even realise!! Considering what this squirmy blighter does I'm not surprised

@jamiewolfe7: Wild and Wicked

@pipxeroth: Portugese Man o' Wars (or blue bottles) are not really jellyfish though. Deadly but not jellyfish

@laflux: More well equipped then smart but that doesn't make them any less deadly

@risingbean: Oh that crazy Hydrol Man, when will we learn?

@rocketraccoonthingy: Chewing one of these is a bad idea, they have stingers on the bell as well as the tentacles

Wow, Jaime Lannister sure looks different in this pic.

@impurestcheese: No I meant about the human swimmers that always came back with burning skin. It is a real world premise, but something that sounds like it might also be in a fantasy or sci-fi novel.

@blueecho: Ah yes it is indeed very strange but then there are more wonders on heaven and earth then you could ever imagine

@just_banter: This one lacks Jamie's backbone ?

Wow. Yeah, I've actually heard of this one. I saw a documentary about abalone divers (they had about 8 divers ...4 on each side of a slow moving boat,collecting abalone...pretty sure it was abalone, it was some kind of shelled mollusk anyway...) one diver got stung by one of these and he had cramps so bad it looked like he was having some kind of seizure. They had to put him in a small cabin under sedative with someone watching him, because of the "feeling of doom" thing. Horrible stuff.

@heroup2112: Sounds about right, the sting marks resemble electrical burns

@impurestcheese: I dunno ... I can imagine a lot ;) :P

@blueecho: Well yes you've shown that in your writing

Whoa, brain haemorrhaging? Sick, another reason to not swim in the ocean XD

@scavengerfist: Especially since the animal that's the route cause of this affliction is small enough to sit on your thumb

I don't want to take a bath with one of those things in it.

@theik2: Most likely there would be more then one in the bath, they are after all tiny. Thanks for the comment

Small but fierce

@ostyo: Not to mention deadly

I'm going to avoid the water around Queensland if ever I'm around there. Seems prudent.

Just a small thing, but Wimbledon is going on at the moment and the other day (was it yesterday?) a competitor repeated his performance of kicking out the defending champion and was referred to as "Kingslayer" in some media. Things that make you go, hmm. Although, gotta feel bad for the poor guy who it was really named after. Can you imagine being made immortal in such a way?

Well, I barely got to squeeze this one in before the end of my lunch break but I'm glad I did. Great stuff.