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By-the-wind sailor

Velella velella

Photo by DavidSantos
Published on Project Noah
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39.1702, -9.36078

Field Notes

Notes:

I think it was a Physalia physalis, but I'm not sure
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Man_o%27_War

Reference Links:

EOL: Velella velella, Velella

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (4)
DavidSantos
I do appreciate the help! My english is very bad but I'll try to add a description;) Blue is amazing. The end of summer the beach is full of blue spots!
LauraMaria
Oh yay, that's awesome! I'm glad I could help :) Maybe you could add some info about Velella in the description now :D It's got such a gorgeous blue colour, doesn't it?
DavidSantos
Thanks for the comment! Yes, it is a Velella velella! thanks
LauraMaria
It's hard to be 100% sure from the picture, it could be a Man o' War (Physalia), but it could be another organism closely related to it called a by-the-wind sailor (it doesn't have the long tentacles that Physalia has, which would probably be visible in the pic). The genus for that one is Velella. If you have a look on Google Images, you could see if it matches more what you saw on the beach :)

Spotted for Missions

Mission
Portugal's Biodiversity
Photographed
PublishedDecember 11, 2011

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