Too hot, too cold or just right? The influence of environmental temperature on the venom of the Irukandji jellyfish Carukia barnesi across two life stages.

Venom ecology is a relatively new area of research not well explored within cnidarians, although some venom shifts with environmental temperature, life stage and geography have been documented in a limited number of species. Here we take the highly venomous Irukandji jellyfish Carukia barnesi and use Ultra High-Performance Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry to assess the venom for compositional differences across three environmental temperatures (27°C, 29°C and 31°C) and two life stages (polyp and newly detached medusa). Here we show variation in the venom for both temperature and life stage, suggesting the venom is directly linked to those ecological factors. Possible impacts of these venom variations may include shifts in sting severity with global warming, major ecological shifts between life stages and potential links to the known variations in symptom onset from Irukandji syndrome.