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Chironex fleckeri Chironex fleckeri

Where the chironex fleckeri lives – recorded in 1 country, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Recorded in (GBIF)Representative wild record

Pin and shaded countries are approximate. The pin is a representative wild-collected museum specimen (a central record among 69 open-licence GBIF records – few open-licence observations were available), not an official range. Method · Records on GBIF · See jellyfish, corals & anemones on the world map

Chironex fleckeri: Avispa marina cropped
Photo: Avispa marina.jpg: Guido Gautsch, Toyota, Japan derivative work: Mithril (talk), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Scientific nameChironex fleckeri
GroupJellyfish, corals & anemones
Found in1 country
ContinentsOceania
ClassCnidarian
OrderChirodropida
FamilyChirodropidae

Where does the chironex fleckeri live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the chironex fleckeri in 1 country or territory across Oceania.

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

What kind of animal is the chironex fleckeri?

The chironex fleckeri (Chironex fleckeri) is a cnidarian in the order Chirodropida and the family Chirodropidae, genus Chironex. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the chironex fleckeri

Chironex fleckeri, commonly known as the Australian box jelly and nicknamed the sea wasp, is a species of extremely venomous box jellyfish found in coastal waters from northern Australia and Papua New Guinea to Indonesia, East Timor, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam. It has been described as "the most lethal jellyfish in the world", with at least 64 known deaths in Australia from 1884 to 2021.

Notorious for its sting, C. fleckeri has tentacles up to 3 m (10 ft) long covered with millions of cnidocytes which, on contact, release microscopic darts delivering an extremely powerful venom. Being stung commonly results in excruciating pain, and if the sting area is significant, an untreated victim may die in two to five minutes. The amount of venom in one animal is said to be enough to kill 60 adult humans.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Chironex fleckeri (revision 1372092044), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q310432 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).

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