Portugese Man Of War

Plenty of childhood memories here. In Australia, we call these Bluebottles (Physalia utriculus), and this is one of two species in the genus Physalia. The other is the Atlantic Portuguese Man o' War (Physalia physalis), but these aren't found in Australian waters. These creatures are known as "zooids", and in this case are actually four highly-modified individual animals, but all are dependent on one another for survival. Here's a spotting I made on the NSW Central Coast. Check out the photos and you can see the individual animals, particularly the one on the back of the float. The reference links are really handy too. These are complicated animals to explain. https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/1529101396