Box jellyfish
Although the notoriously dangerous species of box jellyfish are largely restricted to the tropical Indo-Pacific region, various species of box jellyfish can be found widely in tropical and subtropical oceans, including the Atlantic Ocean and the east Pacific Ocean, with species as far north as California ("Carybdea confusa"), the Mediterranean Sea ("Carybdea marsupialis") and Japan (such as "Chironex yamaguchii"), and as far south as South Africa (for example, "Carybdea branchi") and New Zealand (such as "Copula sivickisi").
Jellyfish
The name jellyfish, in use since 1796, has traditionally been applied to medusae and all similar animals including the comb jellies (ctenophores, another phylum). The term "jellies" or "sea jellies" is more recent, having been introduced by public aquaria in an effort to avoid use of the word "fish" with its connotations of an animal with a backbone, though shellfish, cuttlefish and starfish are not vertebrates either. In scientific literature, "jelly" and "jellyfish" have been used interchangeably. Many sources refer to only scyphozoans as "true jellyfish".