19th-Century Marine Biologist Maude Delap: Jellyfish Goddess

Maude Jane Delap (1866-1953) seen here with her sisters, was a self-taught marine biologist in Edwardian Ireland. She and her sister Constance, early women in science, "were prolific collectors of marine specimens many of which are now housed at the Natural History Museum, Dublin."

"In 1928 Maude Delap's work was fittingly acknowledged when she had a sea anemone named after her." Really? So fitting? It's a species of burrowing sea anemone. Edwardsia delapiae.  Delap's major contributions to marine science were not on burrowing sea anemones, but her research of the life cycles of jellies. She's known as the Jellyfish Goddess (to some people; you know who you are.)

Maude Delap was the first person ever to successfully breed compass jellies in captivity, like Chrysaora hysoscella.