Maude Jane Delap (7 December 1866 – 23 July 1953) was a self-taught marine biologist, known for being the first person to breed jellyfish in captivity, and thus observed their full life cycle for the first time.

[4] Maude, and her sister Constance, were prolific collectors of marine specimens many of which are now housed within the collections of the Natural History Museum, Dublin.

[4] Following this collaboration Maude and Constance continued to collect specimens through dredging and tow-netting as well as recording sea temperature and changes in marine life.

[1] She bred Chrysaora isosceles[8] and Cyanea lamarckii[9] in bell jars and published the results, observing their breeding and feeding habits.

Her laboratory was referred to as the department which her nephew, Peter Delap, described as an "heroic jumble of books, specimens, aquaria, with its pervasive low-tide smell.