Free proofreading and copy-editing included. About Man o’ War. Portuguese Man o’ War (Physalia physalis) Portuguese Man o’ War photo: Jannaraabe / License Strictly speaking the Portuguese Man o’ War, or bluebottle, is not a true jellyfish. All of this prey has the common theme of being soft-bodied. They may be jelly, but they are not jelly fish.
The structure of man-of-war nematocysts may prevent the capture of hard-bodied prey (Purcell 1989).
Unlike jelly fish, these sea creatures have no means of self-propulsion and go anywhere the wind blows. Because of their siphonophore status, man o’ war do not belong to the same family as the jelly fish. The Portuguese man-o’-war is a member of the neuston or “wind drift” community of organisms and generally lives far out to sea, floating on the ocean surface. Can We Write Your Essay? The Portuguese man-of-war is a siphonophore, which is a colony of animals that function together and cannot survive apart. Colony Structure, Tentacles, and Venom The man-of-war comprises four separate polyps. Ace your next assignment with help from a professional writer. Check the Price Hire a Writer Get Help The man-of-war… The Portuguese Man o’ War if a member of the Kingdom Animalia, phylum Cnidaria(1), class Hydrozoa, order Siphonophra, the genus Physalia, and the species Physalia(2). Portuguese men-of-war feed on a wide variety of prey, including fish, fish larvae, cephalopods, chaetognaths, and leptocephalus (eel) larvae (Purcell 1989).
Stings by the Portuguese man o' war can also be deadly, but this gelatinous terror is, technically speaking, not a true jellyfish, but a colony of smaller organisms. The creature's common name may come from its resemblance to a Portuguese sailing warship or to the helmets worn by Portuguese soldiers. It is a relative of the sea anemones and sea jellies (jellyfishes), a stinging animal that belongs to the grouping called the Phylum Cnidaria. One of the most distinctive features of a Portuguese man-of-war is its long tentacles, which comprise the second organism of the man-of-war. The Portuguese man-of-war is a siphonophore, an animal made up of a colony of organisms working together.