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Tentacle

From Openwaterpedia
A box jellyfish and its tentacles
Stings from the tentacles of box jellyfish
Carybdea Box Jellyfish and its tentacles

noun - A tentacle is a flexible, mobile, elongated organ present in animals, mostly invertebrates like jellyfish. Most forms of tentacles are used for grasping and feeding. Many are sensory organs, variously receptive to touch, vision, or to the smell or taste of particular foods or threats.

Lion's Mane Jellyfish

The tentacles of the Lion's mane jellyfish may be up to 120 feet (37 meters) long. They are hollow and are arranged in 8 groups of between 70 and 150. The longer tentacles are equipped with ctenophores whose venom paralyses and kills prey. The smaller tentacles guide food into the mouth.

Box Jellyfish

The box jellyfish tentacles have about 500,000 cnidocytes, containing nematocysts, a harpoon-shaped microscopic mechanism that injects venom into the victim. The venom is distinct and used to catch prey and for defense from predators. Once tentacles of the box jellyfish adheres to skin, it pumps nematocysts with venom into the skin, causing the sting and agonizing pain.

Its microscopic stinging cells are present at up to 5,000 per centimeter of tentacle.

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