Last year citizen scientists participation in the PERSEUS jellyfish spotting campaign was not only great as it comes to sightings numbers but the variety of the sightings recorded was also tremendous. Thanks to people’s help, scientists have managed to reach to a great scientific discovery, the identification of a new jellyfish species!

As a tribute to the late colleague Adam Benovic, the scientist team including Dr.Ferdinando Boero from the University of Salento, decided to name the new species Pelagia Benovici.


Pelagia benovici has similarities with Pelagia noctilucca but it is not known yet if its behavior could be of such a threat.

At this moment the PERSEUS jellyfish spotting campaign  has no further records of  Pelagia benovici since March but this doesn't suggest there won't be any new ones.

Article’s sources: (the guardian: New jellyfish species identified in Gulf of Venice  and The Conversation: The beautiful new jellyfish identified in the Gulf of Venice)