Jellyfish responsible for Irukandji syndrome

Abstract

Sir, I enjoyed the recent letter from Little, Pereira, Carette and Seymour.1 In a field where so little is known, all contributions help expand our knowledge base. However, of the five species presented, four have been previously linked to Irukandji syndrome,2–5 and the fifth may be an erroneous attribution. Alatina mordens was previously linked with Irukandji syndrome in its original description,2 which included variation in the number of eyes. Multiple species may someday be distinguished on the basis of their eye number as the authors have suggested, but this has not been demonstrated taxonomically. Malo maxima was also previously linked with Irukandji syndrome in its original description,3 based on numerous eye-witness accounts of sting events identifying this as the …