Fact 184: Is the Portuguese man-of-war a single organism and a jellyfish?
Fact 184: Is the Portuguese man-of-war a single organism and a jellyfish?
Portuguese man-of-war (Physalia physalis)
The answer is no and no, the Portuguese man-of-war may look like a jellyfish and a single organism but in fact it isn't (if you are looking directly at a Portuguese man-of-war may I suggest you either run calmly away or start swimming away rather than reading information about them). The Portuguese man of war is a colony of individual organisms called polyps. The Man of War is basically a species of siphonophore (gosh that is a long word), which is a group of animals that are closely related to jellyfish.
The Portuguese Man-of-War Is interestingly Four Organisms, or zooids, that can't function without each other. Each one provides a necessary function for the others to survive. The four organisms or zooids are, One the bubble of gas, two the tentacles, and three mouth tentacle tubes and four the reproductive tentacles which can't function without the other.
