Portugese Man-o-war Page

Thanks to answers page, of the Oceanlink Marine Science Web Site...

Portugese Man-o war (received Feb 6 from Nathan in Ohio)
Question: What is a Portugese man-of-war?

A. A Portugese man-of war is definitely something that you don't want to run into while snorkling. It is in the phylum Cnidaria, and has stinging cells which are characteristic of this group of animals. Within this phylum, we can be more specific, and put the portugese man-of-war into the order Siphonophora (see the oceanlink answers page for more information about this group). Siphonophores are actually colonies of animals, with each animal specializing in a particular role. The portugese man-of-war has a conspicuous gas filled sac, and it floats along on the top of the ocean trailing long stinging tentacles behind it. These tentacles catch any fish and plankton that are unlucky enough to blunder into them. If you are snorkling and contact any of these tentacles, they can give you a nasty sting, which feels very similar to a burn (speaking from personal experience!)

• The University of California, Irvine maintains a CNIDARIA Home Page
• Pictures of Plankton: with ctenophores, medusae, siphonophores, a chaetognath and a radiolarian.
• Introduction to the Chondrophorina: It looks like a jellyfish, but it isn't... Porpita, shown here, isn't even a single organism, but a colony!
• Phylum Cnidaria Lecture Notes on Cnidarians.
• Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory
• Phylum Cnidaria: Eastern Oregon University's Professor Rinehart provides definitions, descriptions, and details. (but no diagrams :(