Cyanea Capillata
From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
Sea animal.
The lion's mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata) is one of the largest known species of jellyfish. Its range is confined to cold, boreal waters of the Arctic, northern Atlantic, and northern Pacific Oceans. The largest recorded specimen was measured off the coast of Massachusetts in 1865 and had a bell with a diameter of 210 centimetres (7 feet) and tentacles around 36.6 m (120 ft) long.
In the Sherlock Holmes stories
aka The Lion's Mane
- Cyanea capillata was the sea creature Sherlock Holmes identified as the true cause of Fitzroy McPherson's death (LION 437).
- Sherlock Holmes described it underwater as "a curious waving, vibrating, hairy creature" that looks like "a tangled mass torn from the mane of a lion" (LION 439).
- Back in his study, Sherlock Holmes named it directly: "Cyanea capillata is the miscreant's full name" (LION 463).
- The book extract Sherlock Holmes read called it "the fearful stinger, Cyanea capillata" (LION 465).
