See the bluebottle in a whole new light

The physalia, more commonly known as the bluebottle or Pacific man-of-war, is not a single animal but a colony of four kinds of highly modified individuals called zooids. The zooids are dependent on one another for survival.

The float, or pneumatophore, is a single individual and supports the rest of the colony. The tentacles, or dactylozooids, are polyps concerned with the detection and capture of food and convey their prey to the digestive polyps, called gastrozooids. Reproduction is carried out by the gonozooids, another type of polyp.

Bluebottles are commonly encountered in the summer months on the eastern coast Photo: of Birte Australia, and during autumn and winter on our southern shores.

The most impressive members of the colony are the tentacles. As the bluebottle drifts downwind, the long tentacles fish continuously through the water. Muscles in the tentacles contract and drag prey into range of the digestive polyps.

Bluebottles are hermaphrodites, so each individual gonozooid consists of male and female parts. The fertilised egg develops into a planktonic larval form that produces the large colony by asexual budding.

The bluebottle is not a jellyfish but is related to sea anemones and jellyfish and can still sting victims even after they're dead or washed up on a beach.

I’m sure next time you see a bluebottle, you’ll see them differently.

JOSIE JONES Follow me on Instagram @sharejosie