Portuguese Man O' War

The Portuguese Man O' War (Physalia physalis), also known as the Portuguese Man-Of-War, Man-Of-War, or Bluebottle, is a jellyfish-like marine cnidarian of the family Physaliidae. Its venomous tentacles can deliver a powerful sting.

Despite its outward appearance, the Man o' War is not a jellyfish but a siphonophore, which differs from jellyfish in that it is not actually a single creature, but 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.

Read more about Portuguese Man O' War:  Etymology, Habitat and Location, Structure, Venom, Predators and Prey, Commensalism and Symbiosis, Gallery

Famous quotes containing the word war:

    There is great fear expressed on all sides lest this war shall be made a war for the negro. I am willing that it shall be. It is a war to found an empire on the negro in slavery, and shame on us if we do not make it a war to establish the negro in freedom—against whom the whole nation, North and South, East and West, in one mighty conspiracy, has combined from the beginning.
    Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)