這些倒置的水母會用充滿毒液的“鼻涕彈”蜇你

這些倒置的水母會用充滿毒液的“鼻涕彈”蜇你

Upside-down jellyfish on the ocean floor release venom-filled blobs of mucus, which can sting nearby swimmers, new research reveals.

一項新的研究顯示，在海底倒立的水母會釋放出充滿毒液的黏液團，這些黏液團會刺痛附近的游泳者。

The jellyfish, formally known as Cassiopea xamachana, have a weird, plant-like appearance and they typically are stuck to the ocean’s floor.

這種水母的正式名稱是Cassiopea xamachana，它有著怪異的植物狀外觀，通常會粘在海底。

According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, these jellyfish are typically found living in the mangrove forests and lagoons of southern Florida, Hawaii, the Indo-Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean.

據(jù)蒙特利灣水族館介紹，這些水母通常生活在佛羅里達南部、夏威夷、印度-太平洋和加勒比海的紅樹林和瀉湖中。

When snorkelers are in those areas, they sometimes develop a strange itching sensation.

當浮潛者到達這些區(qū)域時，他們有時會產(chǎn)生一種奇怪的瘙癢感。

“You start to feel this tingling … More than just itchiness, like when an itch turns into a painful discomfort,” Cheryl Ames, a museum research associate and an associate professor of applied marine biology at Tohoku University in Japan, explained to Live Science.

“你開始感到這種刺痛感……不僅僅是發(fā)癢，就像瘙癢變成了痛苦的不適，”日本東北大學(Tohoku University)博物館助理研究員、應用海洋生物學副教授謝麗爾·埃姆斯(Cheryl Ames)在接受《生活科學》(Live Science)采訪時解釋道。

Ames and her colleagues believe they have figured out why this happens; their work was published today in the journal Communications Biology.

艾姆斯和她的同事們相信他們已經(jīng)找到了原因，他們的研究成果今天發(fā)表在《通訊生物學》雜志上。

The jellyfish deploy cellular bombs armed with stinging cells called nematocytes, according to their study. Those bombs release a skin-irritating venom when they make contact with a passing swimmer.

根據(jù)他們的研究，這種水母部署了帶有稱為“線蟲細胞”的帶刺細胞的細胞炸彈。這些炸彈在與路過的游泳者接觸時會釋放出刺激皮膚的毒液。

As for how to avoid being stung, researchers are still investigating whether the jellies release the venom more at certain times of the day or in response to certain types of disturbances.

至于如何避免被蜇，研究人員仍在研究水母是在一天中的特定時間釋放更多的毒液，還是對特定類型的干擾做出反應。