Qld: Research may one day take the sting out of Irukandji
By Rosemary Desmond
BRISBANE, Aug 15 AAP - A tiny rock-like structure may hold the key to finding a curefor the potentially deadly sting of the Irukandji jellyfish.
The microscopic structure, known as a statolith (statolith), could help identify thetype of Irukandji that has been blamed for at least two fatalities off north Queensland,a researcher said today.
"It all starts with being able to tell one species from another," James Cook UniversityPhD student Lisa-ann Gershwin told AAP.
There were seven different species of jellyfish generically known as Irukandji, althoughonly one had been named.
Identifying their statoliths was a good starting point because they did not break downas quickly as the soft tissue of jellyfish, she said.
"It (the statolith) allows us to positively identify species which are in bad shape,fragmented or poorly preserved, or even fossil specimens," Ms Gershwin said.
"Right now, if you bring a specimen to me and it is kind of disintegrated, I can'tidentify it because it doesn't have the structures preserved in the right way.
"But if you bring a specimen to me and I look at its statolith, I can say that, `ohit's that species'."
One of the people who died last year was American tourist Robert King. His partnerdonated $US10,000 ($A15,278) to help find an anti-venom for the sting that killed Mr Kingoff Port Douglas.
Ms Gershwin, 39, from California, is using the funding to further her research into Irukandji.
The only species of the jellyfish that has been named is carukia barnesi.
It was named for the physician and naturalist Jack Barnes, who subjected himself toa sting to confirm the species as Irukandji.
The sting causes extreme back and abdominal pain, nausea, headaches, vomiting and highblood pressure, which can lead to strokes and heart attacks.
The other six species of Irukandji would be named and described in scientific and museumjournals during the next few months, Ms Gershwin said.
They ranged in length from one centimetre to about 20cm.
Ms Gershwin said she believed she was the only person in the world researching howthe kind of jellyfish known as cubozoa (cubozoa) were related.
"It's pretty exciting because no scientist has examined these structures in these jellyfishes,"
she said.
"It's a little bit weird to be traipsing around chasing things that can kill you."
AAP rad/ak/jlw/
KEYWORD: IRUKANDJI
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