Indo-Pacific Portuguese Man-of-War (Physalia utriculus) Bluebottle at MacMasters Beach
Date 29 January 2012, 16:07
Source Bluebottle at MacMasters Beach
Author Doug Beckers http://www.flickr.com/people/37103729@N02 from Macmasters Beach, Australia
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bluebottle_at_MacMasters_Beach_(6788354227).jpg
Physalia utriculus, also called Blue Bottle or (Indo-Pacific) Portuguese Man-of-War, is a marine hydrozoan of the order Siphonophora found in the Indian and Pacific oceans. A gas filled bladder allows it to float on the surface, propelled by currents, tides, and by a sail at the top of the bladder. A single long tentacle of venomous cnidocytes, hanging below the float, provides the animal with a means of capturing prey.
Order: Siphonophora
Family: Physaliidae
Genus: Physalia
Species: Physalia utriculus (La Martinière, 1787)