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Portuguese Man O' War

Physalia physalis

Photo by 7yl4r
Published on Project Noah
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24.7908, -80.8885

Field Notes

Description:

Though it looks like it, the man o' war is not a jellyfish, but is a siphonophore, a colonial organism made up of many minute individuals called zooids. Each of these zooids is highly specialized, and, although structurally similar to other solitary animals, they are attached to one another and physiologically integrated to the extent that they are incapable of independent survival.

I saw quite a few of them that day, luckily I didn't bump into any and receive the extremely powerful sting. ~10cm in diameter.

Notes:

Description adapted from wikipedia article

Reference Links:

Portuguese Man o' War

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (5)
annmarie.salem
Interesting. I know of these as "blue bottles" and always thought they were just a type of jelly fish. That is why I like Project Noah. Oh and I been stung by these guys and it was quite painful!
LauraMaria
Beautiful spotting, I think these things are awesome! They are not symbiotic though - it's a colony of polyps, each one specialised for different things. Each individual polyp is the same species though, so it's not a symbiosis... it's an odd set up, which makes these things even more brilliant! Just thought I'd clear that up though :D Still an absolutely awesome spot, gorgeous photos (nicely done capturing the striking blue colour!).
7yl4r
sure, I'll do that. Thanks for the suggestion!
KarenL
Can you provide some more info on the symbiotic relationship? You might also like to consider adding this to the Symbiotic Relationships mission.
Photographed
PublishedFebruary 13, 2012

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