Physalia
| Physalia | |
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| A portuguese man o' war | |
| Scientific classification | |
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| Suborder: | Cystonectae |
| Family: | Physaliidae |
| Genus: | Physalia |
| Type species | |
| Physalia physalis Linnaeus, 1758 | |
Physalia is a genus of hydrozoan jellyfish. It is the only genus in the family Physaliidae. Just like most hydrozoans, the members of this genus are colonial, meaning if you find one of the species in this genus, for example the Portuguese man o' war, one of the most know species in the genus isn't just one jellyfish, its a jellyfish made out of thousands of zooids. The members of the genus are sometimes called bluebottles or man o' wars. The genus was first named by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1801.
Species
For a long time, we thought the portuguese man o' war was the only species and the other species were just different stages of its life, but we later figured out these were different species, causing there to be 3 recognized species instead.
In 2025, scientists found 2 new species, Physalia mikazuki, the japanese man o' war and Physalia minuta, the Little bluebottle. This caused there to be 5 recognised species instead.
List of species
- Physalia physalis, the Portuguese man o' war
- Physalia minuta, the Little bluebottle
- Physalia mikazuki, the Japanese man o' war
- Physalia utriculus, the Indo-Pacific man o' war
- Physalia megalista, the southern man o' war