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Portuguese Man o' War

Physalia physalis

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10 Comments

Chris Carille
Chris Carille 12 years ago

I could imagine! I was stung by some small stuff in the South China Sea - I know size isn't everything, but I would not want to be stung by a big guy like this

Chris Carille
Chris Carille 12 years ago

It was really neat to find it... one of the only organisms found on a long night hike looking for sea turtles

Jerzer Rawr
Jerzer Rawr 12 years ago

Coolest Physalis ive seen! :D

Chris Carille
Chris Carille 12 years ago

They are really alien like

KarenL
KarenL 12 years ago

Fascinating! Great info Juan!

Wow here in Ecuador they are smaller and are called agua mala, (bad water), it is common to be stung by them.

Chris Carille
Chris Carille 12 years ago

Juan nailed it right on the head. Man o' Wars are colonies of smaller organisms and can give a pretty nasty sting. This one had been washed ashore at night. This particular one was rather large, being almost a foot in length.

Actually it is not a jelly fish but a very interesting organism colony, wikipedia can explain better "Despite its outward appearance, the Man o' War is not a true jellyfish but a siphonophore, which differ from jellyfish in that they are not actually a single creature, but a colonial organism made up of many minute individuals called zooids.[1] Each of these zooids is highly-specialized and, although structurally similar to other solitary animals, are attached to each other and physiologically integrated to the extent that they are incapable of independent survival."

CikraVajnai
CikraVajnai 12 years ago

Is that a jelly fish?!

Carolina
Carolina 12 years ago

Awesome! I'd like to know more about them!

Chris Carille
Spotted by
Chris Carille

Belmopan, Belize

Spotted on Jul 30, 2009
Submitted on Aug 30, 2011

Spotted for Mission

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