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Still, the creatures can kill: One unlucky victim suffered a full cardiovascular collapse and died after getting too close to a Man O’ War in eastern Florida back in 1987. But just because deaths are rare doesn't mean you should touch one: On February 11, 2018, 204 people in Hollywood, Florida were treated for stings, which can lead to red welts on the skin, muscle cramps, elevated heart rates, and vomiting. The odds of being killed by a Portuguese Man O’ War are slim. ON RARE OCCASIONS, STINGS CAN BE FATAL TO HUMANS. Be warned: Even a severed tentacle can sting you. When a tentacle is detached from the rest of the colony, it might wash ashore somewhere or drift around for days on end until it decomposes. MAN O’ WAR TENTACLES CAN BE UP TO 165 FEET LONG.Īt least, that’s the maximum length for the dactylozooids-which are normally around 30 feet long and use venom-spewing cells to deliver painful, neurotoxic stings.
It’s also been suggested that Renaissance-era sailors thought the pneumatophores resembled the helmets worn by Portugal’s soldiers during the 16th century. Or at least that’s one explanation for the creature’s peculiar name. What does that have to do with Physalia physalias? These colonies spend a lot of time floating at the water’s surface, and when the gas bladder is expanded, it looks-and acts-a bit like a sailboat, hence the “Man O’ War.” As for the Portuguese part, 19th century scientists proposed that sailors encountered it near the Portuguese island of Madeira, while modern etymologists tend to think that it looked like the Portuguese version of the ship. British sailors took to calling this kind of vessel a “Man of War.” In the age of sailing, many European navies used tall warships loaded with cannons and propelled by three masts. THE NAME “PORTUGUESE MAN O’ WAR” IS PROBABLY A NAVAL REFERENCE. It’s smaller than the Atlantic species and unlike its bigger counterpart-which has multiple hunting tentacles-it hunts with a single, elongated tentacle. It’s sometimes called the Indo-Pacific “Portuguese” Man O’ War and is restricted to the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Also known as the Atlantic Portuguese Man O’ War, it can be found in warmer parts of the Pacific, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, and of course, the Atlantic.Īnother kind of siphonophore which regularly stings beachgoers is the so-called bluebottle, Physalia utriculus. When we say “Portuguese Man O’ War,” we’re talking about Physalia physalis, the bizarre siphonophore that’s scaring New Jerseyans right now. A CLOSE RELATIVE IS THE INDO-PACIFIC “BLUEBOTTLE.” An expanded float also enables the colony to harness winds to move around. Capable of expanding or contracting at will, it provides the Man O’ War with some buoyancy control. Every Man O’ War also has a pneumatophore, or “float”-an overgrown, bag-like polyp which acts as a giant gas bladder and sits at the top of the colony. Dactylozooids are long hunting tentacles built to ensnare prey gastrozooids are smaller tentacles which digest the food and gonozooids are dangling entities whose job is to facilitate reproduction.
Though the zooids within a Man O’ War are basically clones, they come in different shapes and serve different purposes. They must cooperate as one in order to do things like travel and catch food. These tiny organisms-called polyps or zooids-can’t survive on their own, so they merge together into a tentacled mass. But as it develops, it starts "budding" into distinct structures and organisms. A siphonophore starts out as a fertilized egg. The Portuguese Man o’ War may look like a bloated jellyfish, but it’s actually a siphonophore-a bizarre group of animals that consist of colonies made up of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of genetically-identical individual creatures. Read on to learn more about these unusual creatures. Something a lot scarier than any Jersey Devil has been washing up on beaches in the Garden State lately: This month, the dangerous Portuguese Man O’ War-which has a potentially deadly sting-has been sighted in Cape May and Wildwood, New Jersey, which could lead to problems for beachgoers.
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