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The Portuguese man o' war (genus Physalia), also known as the blue bottle, is commonly thought of as a jellyfish but is actually a siphonophore—a colony of four sorts of polyps. A similar group of animals are the chondrophores. The man o' war's float is bilaterally symmetrical with the tentacles at one end, while the velella is radially symmetrical with the sail at an angle. Also the man o' war has a siphon, while the velella does not.
The Portuguese man o' war has an air bladder that allows it to float on the surface of the ocean. It has no means of propulsion and is pushed by the winds and the current. The bladder is actually a single large polyp, called the pneumatophore, which produces its own gas to stay inflated.
Below the jelly dangle long tentacles, sometimes stretching to over fifty meters in length. These tentacles are individual polyps called dactylozooids. They stun and kill small sea creatures using poison-filled nematocysts , and use muscles to draw the prey in to the gastrozooids, yet another different type of polyp which surround and digest it. Gonozooids, the fourth type of polyp, are responsible for reproduction.
Portuguese man o' war are an important source of food to sea turtles, which are immune to the poison. The Portuguese man o' war can be found on the coast of North AmericaNorth America is the third largest continent in area and the fourth ranked in population. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocea and EuropeFor the band of the same name, see Europe (band . Europe is a continent forming the westermost part of the Eurasian supercontinent. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Se as well as in other areas of the world.
The Portuguese man o' war has stings potentially dangerous to humanHuman beings are defined variously in biological, spiritual, and cultural terms, or in combinations thereof. Biologically, they are classified as Homo sapiens ( Latin for knowing man , a primate species of mammal with a highly developed brain. In spirituas; these stings have been responsible for several deaths, but usually only cause intense (if not lethal) pain. Detached tentacles, and specimens washed up on shore, can sting just as painfully as the full creature in the water.
