EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -The siphonophore Physalia physalis, commonly known as the Portuguese man o’ war, is one of the most conspicuous, but poorly understood, members of the neuston. The neuston is the floating community of ocean organisms that live at the interface between water and air.

Detailed explanation-2: -Share. The Portuguese man o’ war is a highly venomous open ocean predator that superficially resembles a jellyfish but is actually a siphonophore. Each man o’ war is actually a colony of several small individual organisms that each have a specialized job and are so closely intertwined that they cannot survive alone.

Detailed explanation-3: -Resembling an 18th-century Portuguese warship under full sail, the man o’ war is recognized by its balloon-like float, which may be blue, violet, or pink and rises up to six inches above the waterline.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Portuguese man-of-war is a floating hydrozoan. It is actually a colony consisting of four types of polyps: a pneumatophore, or float; dactylozooids, or tentacles; gastrozooids, or feeding zooids; and gonozooids which produce gametes for reproduction. Cnidocytes (stinging cells) are located in the tentacles.

Detailed explanation-5: -A Portuguese man-of-war is actually a colony of individual organisms called polyps.