Non-invasive extraction of Cnidarian venom through the use of autotomised tentacles

The animals contained within the phylum Cnidaria have
origins that can be dated back to around 750 million
years ago (mya) and as such, they represent what is
potentially the oldest known venomous lineage that is
recognised today. The phylum Cnidaria, which includes Sea Anemones, Corals and Jellyfish are also one of the most under-studied as far as toxins go, likely a result of the constraints involved in obtaining samples. Over the last two decades there have been increased efforts to further our ability to obtain samples, however, the sampling techniques developed were invasive and generally required the dissection of tissues from the organism. Within recent years, there have been some developments in the chemical extraction of Cnidarian venom, using ethanol to trigger nematocyst firing. These developments have led to the formation of this research, which uses ethanol to elicit stimulation of nematocysts on naturally autotomised tentacles whilst being observed under light microscopy, before having protein content measured using microspectrophotometry. This paper focuses on a unique observation of Cnidaria that is unknown in any other animal taxa, passive autotomy of envenomation apparatus, the tentacles.