A few years ago I found several specimens of a so far undescribed species of box jellyfish from the island of Madagascar tucked away in the museum collections with other jellyfish that nobody had gotten around to identifying. When I say I found, I mean it was a really coincidental discovery. When moving around jars on a shelf the formalin in one of the gallon jars started swashing around. It contained a large species of jellyfish collected in Madagascar similar to the edible (yummy recipe!) jellyfish Rhopilema esculentum. I wasn't particularly interested in that jelly but saw that the motion made several translucent jellyfish visible because they started moving about in the liquid. Almost immediately I realized that they were square-shaped like the other box jellyfish I had worked on, and since I wasn't aware of any species of box jellyfish known to occur in Madagascar I decided to take them back to the lab for further examination.
After taking a closer look it became apparent that the specimens I was dealing with were indeed box jellyfish, collected in the 1960ies by Jack Rudloe during the International Indian Ocean Expedition, as the hand-written label stated. The Madagascan box jellyfish is incredibly similar to two other species known from Australia, Chiropsella bart and Chiropsella bronzie. Both of these species are endemic to small areas on the coast of tropical Australia (C. bart from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory and C. bronzie from the eastern shores of tropical Queensland between Rockhampton and Cairns) and usually not as venomous as their infamous cousin, the sea wasp Chironex fleckeri. In case you didn't know, we have a close relative of these species on the US East and Gulf coasts reaching from North Carolina all the way to Brazil.
I described the species of box jellyfish from Madagascar last year and named it in honor of Jack Rudloe who discovered and collected it in Madagascar's coastal wetlands (mangroves) almost five decades ago. So now its formal scientific name is Chiropsella rudloei.
The decision to name Chiropsella rudloei after Jack was driven by me learning about his tireless efforts to preserve marine habitats and provide environmental education through Gulf Marine Specimen Marine Lab in Florida's panhandle. In short, what started out as an operation supplying specimens for research and teaching to universities across the country has morphed into a non-profit aquarium with a strong emphasis on education and conservation, run by him, his late wife, and sons. These efforts were recently honored by the Environmental Law Institute in a ceremony at the US Botanic Garden where Jack and his late wife Anne received the National Wetlands Award for their education and outreach efforts. Prior to his visit, Jack had discovered my recent species description of Chiropsella rudloei and invited me to attend the awards ceremony – I think the fact that many box jellyfish, including Chiropsella rudloei, are found in coastal wetlands is a nice twist considering Jack's long-standing commitment to wetland conservation. To paraphrase Jack from his speech: he wonders if the species was named after him because he spends so much time in the wetlands or because of his prickly nature when it comes to fighting for the protection of marine and coastal habitats.
At the ceremony I got to meet Jack and his family, which was a great honor for me. In addition, I got to meet a diverse array of scientists, environmentalists, lawyers and legislators from different parts of the country all united by their commitment to the conservation and restoration of our natural heritage. I particularly recall conversations I had with members of the Bay Foundation from Los Angeles who received an award for their work of conserving and restoring LA's wetlands. When I think of LA I think of a jungle of concrete, but apparently LA does still have some of its formerly expansive wetlands and a dedicated group of people fighting for their restoration and conservation. This also reminded me that even on our doorstep in DC we can still see some of the national capital's wetlands – Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, for example, offers the opportunity to see wetland fauna and flora and is a great spot for birding. Another issue that came up during the ceremony was that we often forget the benefit of wetland preservation that extends beyond the sentiment of preserving biodiversity: long-lasting and functional protection from storm surges and flooding – a speaker from New Jersey pointed this out with reference to the aftermath of hurricane Sandy!
Since Jack was in town he and his family came out to the Museum Support Center in Suitland, MD that houses the majority of the specimens of the Smithsonian's natural history collections. The collections hold many of the specimens that Jack collected during his career in addition to his jellyfish Chiropsella rudloei. So I was glad to get Jack out to the collections on a recent sunny afternoon and have him meet the box jellyfish he collected many years ago in Madagascar.
He was quite pleased to meet the species named after him and got a chance to rediscover specimens collected by him for various other projects throughout the years.
Unfortunately, we ran out of time to visit many of the specimens that Jack's mentor and friend John Steinbeck collected with Ed Ricketts during their famous trip to the Sea of Cortez in 1940. Prior to Jack's visit I was oblivious to the fact that a lot of the specimens that are mentioned in the well-known book The Log of the Sea of Cortez written by Steinbeck and Ricketts remain part of the museum's collections. A tour on the footsteps of John Steinbeck through the collections will have to wait for another day...[Editor's note: and another No Bones post.]
by Bastian Bentlage, postdoc at University of Maryland and Research Collaborator of NMNH
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