TGIF: Portuguese Man-O-War Feeding


Despite being stung by one of them on a Gulf beach as a kid, Portugese Man-O-War’s are still one of my favorite organisms.  Hat tip to @echinoblog for the link to this video of a Portugese Man-O-War capturing a fish. Remember this species is colonial and made of four different polyps or zooids, working in unison and dividing labor.  The bladder is a single polyp called a pneumatophore.  The long tentacles are dactylzooids used for fishing.  The dactylzooids bring the fish up to another set of zooids, gastrozooids, responsible for digestion.  Last, there is set of zooids, gonozooids, in charge of reproduction. The scientific name Physalia physalis references the Greek term for bladder.

2 Replies to “TGIF: Portuguese Man-O-War Feeding”

  1. WHOAH!! Methinks that would best be viewed in 3D whilst snookered. In my undersea game, I have placed a teratomorph, a pseudonatural gargantuan siphonophore, of sorts, for the adventuring party to discover at a later date. One player character is an ephyra, a jellyfish-merman inspired by the mauve stinger and a picture I saw over at elfwood.

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