Portuguese Man-of-War

Fascinating facts about the Portuguese Man-of-War

• The venom is so potent that it can cause anaphylactic shock in sensitive individuals. In rare cases, stings have been fatal.
• It has no method of propulsion — it goes wherever wind, current, and tide take it. Vast armadas of hundreds of thousands sometimes wash up on beaches simultaneously.
• Portuguese sailors in the 15th century named it after a type of 16th-century warship, the caravela portuguesa, because the crested blue float resembled its billowing sails.

At a glance

About the Portuguese Man-of-War

The Portuguese Man-of-War is not a single animal. It is a siphonophore: a colonial organism made up of four genetically identical yet structurally different zooids — one is the float, one forms tentacles, one handles digestion, one handles reproduction. None can survive independently.

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