In Mai Po Nature Reserve, researchers from Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) found a tiny, cube-shaped box jellyfish with 24 eyes.
During the summers of 2020 to 2022, a research team under the direction of Prof. Qiu Jianwen collected jellyfish samples from a brine shrimp pond known as “Gi Wai” in the My Po Nature Reserve. They discovered the presence of a new species in these samples.
The newly discovered species was given the name Trapedelia miopensis in honor of the Mai Po Nature Reserve.
“We named the new species Tripedalia maipoensis to reflect its type locality-where the new species was first found. Although it is currently known only in Mai Po, we believe that this species is also distributed in the adjacent waters of the Pearl River Estuary as the gei wais are connected to the estuary through a tidal channel,” Professor Qiu said.Â
