Melissa Acevedo

Carybdea marsupialis (Cubozoa) in the Mediterranean Sea: The First Case of a Sting Causing Cutaneous and Systemic Manifestations

A woman stung by the box jellyfish Carybdea marsupialis (Cnidaria, Cubozoa) at a Spanish Mediterranean beach showed systemic manifestations over several months [pain far from the inoculation point, arthralgia, paresthesia, hyperesthesia, increase in eosinophils and immunoglobulin E (IgE)] in addition to the skin condition.

First records of Carybdea marsupialis proliferation (Cnidaria: Cubozoa) along the eastern Tunisian coast (Central Mediterranean)

Abstract The cubozoan jellyfish Carybdea marsupialis Linnaeus, 1758 is recorded for the first time from the eastern Tunisian coast (Hammamet beach). A few specimens (three adult individuals) were first recorded in July 2005. In spite of several jellyfish monitoring campaigns carried out along the Tunisian coasts in recent years, new records of C. marsupialis from the same location were only made years later, in July and August 2014, consisting of aggregations of adult jellyfish (mean density of 1.1 ± 1.0 ind. m−3), which may pose a severe threat to bathers due to their painful stings. The mean morphometric parameter values from 55 C. marsupialis specimens sampled during the same period are reported here, and the possible causes for box jellyfish proliferation in the Hammamet coastal zone are also discussed.

Environmental factors influencing the spatio-temporal distribution of Carybdea marsupialis (Lineo, 1978, Cubozoa) in South-Western Mediterranean coasts

Jellyfish blooms cause important ecological and socio-economic problems. Among jellyfish, cubozoans are infamous for their painful, sometimes deadly, stings and are a major public concern in tropical to subtropical areas; however, there is little information about the possible causes of their outbreaks. After a bloom of the cubomedusa Carybdea marsupialis (Carybdeidae) along the coast of Denia (SW Mediterranean, Spain) in 2008 with negative consequences for local tourism, the necessity to understand the ecological restrictions on medusae abundance was evident. Here we use different models (GAM and zero-inflated models) to understand the environmental and human related factors influencing the abundance and distribution of C. marsupialis along the coast of Denia. Selected variables differed among medusae size classes, showing different environmental restriction associated to the developmental stages of the species. Variables implicated with dispersion (e.g. wind and current) affected mostly small and medium size classes. Sea surface temperature, salinity and proxies of primary production (chl a, phosphates, nitrates) were related to the abundances of small and large size classes, highlighting the roles of springtime salinity changes and increased primary production that may promote and maintain high densities of this species. The increased primary (and secondary) production due to anthropogenic impact is implicated as the factor enabling high numbers of C. marsupialis to thrive. Recommendations for monitoring blooms of this species along the study area and applicable to Mediterranean Sea include focus effort in coastal waters where productivity have been enriched by anthropogenic activities.