Reports of “creepy eyeball” creatures washing-up in Texas caused alarm among residents following a number of sightings.
The species of Rhizophysa eysenhardti, according to US wildlife experts, are reportedly from warmer waters and related to Portuguese man o' war.
They were recently spotted along the Texas coast, with onlookers posting images of the eyeball-looking creatures online.
Jennifer Baltazar, who shared images of “the creepy eyeball looking creatures” on Facebook, believes one of the creepy eyeballs stung her son.
“That’s when we noticed it because I went looking for what could’ve stung him,” she told KSAT.
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“We were super surprised because we’ve never seen anything like that on the beach and the staff at Mustang Island was puzzled.”
Officials from the US National Park Service, surprised by the creatures, eventually identified them as Rhizophysa eysenhardti — a form of jelly-fish.
“This one had us stumped for quite some time,” said officials from the Mustang Island State Park, Texas.
“These creepy eyeball looking creatures are related to Portuguese man-of-war,” said the officials. “The species is Rhyspophysa and sometimes called spaghetti monsters or thread-jellies.”
Padre Island National Park, following sightings, also said of the creatures: “Siphonophores are colonial organisms, meaning that what appears to be one creature is actually lots of little ones all with their own function”.
According to officials, the creatures are from the Atlantic and Indian oceans, and are rarely seen as far as north as Texas, in the Gulf of Mexico.
The sting of a man o’ war, similar to that of the “creepy eyeballs”, “is rarely deadly to people, [but] it packs a painful punch and causes welts on exposed skin,” the US National Ocean service says.
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