The mauve stingers (also known as Pelagia noctiluca) have been breeding in the water throughout the winter, and are now ready for an assault on the beaches of Spain and the Mediterranean.Masses of jellyfish are an increasingly common nuisance, not just in Spain, but all around the world.
A familiar example of a firefly is the common European glowworm (Lampyris noctiluca), whose wingless female emits a bright light near the hind end of the body; the winged male emits a much feebler light.
The common glowworm (Lampyris noctiluca) is a member of this family (see glowworm).
Mauve stingers, also known by their Latin name, Pelagia noctiluca, are on the small side for jellyfish, with bells that measure up to about five inches in diameter.
In November, scientists at the Barcelona-based Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM) began studying the life cycles of jellyfish off the Costa Brava, and were alarmed to detect large numbers of the Pelagia noctiluca, commonly known as the "mauve stinger", growing in the winter, ready for an assault on Spain's beaches.
The institute has detected a surge this spring in one of the most poisonous species, the mauve stinger or Pelagia noctiluca, along the coast of Catalonia and Valencia.
In one area, where the noctiluca were particularly dense, Bob said, "It's like swimming into a galaxy, a globular cluster".
There was no context whatsoever — it was like being immersed in a giant random-dot stereogram, and yet Sue now saw the noctiluca at different depths and distances, in three-dimensional space.
"Give yourself to the noctiluca".
Pelagia noctiluca, common in the Mediterranean, delivers a painful sting producing a wound that lasts weeks, months or years, depending on the person and the amount of contact.
Blooming algaeAlong the Chinese coast, aquaculture has been struck by an organism called Noctiluca scintillans, which turns the water tomato-red and kills shrimp.
