Portuguese boat - the beauty that burns

The amazingly beautiful creation of nature - the Portuguese boat (fisalia) - is as dangerous as it is attractive. In order not to get burned, it is better to admire them from a distance.

And you can say, you can say, there is something: above the surface of the water gently silvered and shimmered in blue, purple and purple color "sail", similar to those adorned with medieval vessels. Its top, crest, bright red, and the lower part, from which long, sometimes up to 30 meters, trapping tentacles, blue.

Is the Portuguese ship a jellyfish or not?

It must be said that, although this creature and a close relative of jellyfish, but still does not apply to such. The Portuguese boat is a siphonophora, a primitive invertebrate organism. It is a colony of four species of polyps coexisting together. Each of them performs the assigned function.

Thanks to the first polyp - a gas bubble, the beauty of which we admire, the Portuguese boat keeps afloat and can drift in the waters of the ocean.

Another polyps, dactylozoids - are hunting tentacles, along the huge length of which there are stinging cells, injecting poison into the prey. Small fry, fry, crustaceans from it die right away, and in larger ones, paralysis occurs. By the way, even in the dried form the tentacles of the Portuguese ship remain very dangerous for humans.

Thanks to the cunning tentacles, the caught prey is dragged to the third kind of polyps - gastrozoids, which digest food, splitting proteins, carbohydrates and fats. And the fourth type - gonozoids - perform the function of reproduction.

Amazing Flotilla

The Portuguese boat can only move through the flow or wind. In the waters of the Pacific, Atlantic or Indian oceans, you can find a whole fleet of similarly elegant inflatable toys of fisals.

But sometimes they "blow off" their bubbles and plunge into the water to avoid danger. And to be afraid of them is someone: despite the venomousness, the boats serve as a coveted prey for some species of animals. So, for example, sea turtles (loggerhead, turtle-turtle), fish-moon or shellfish (nudibranch, yantina) can significantly dilute the rows of "sailboats".

But the shepherd-cow lives among the long tentacles of the fisala as a freeloader. Poison to this fish does not work, but reliably protects against numerous enemies, and the shepherd himself eats the remains of the protector's booty and the dead ends of dactylosoids.

"Medusa" Portuguese ship is dangerous, like cobra!

The ship is especially dangerous for children and the elderly, as well as for those who suffer from allergic reactions. On the burn site, a painful edema is formed, muscle cramps can begin. The victim has a fever, chills, nausea and vomiting.

Do not wash the place of damage with fresh water, it will only intensify the pain. But vinegar can neutralize the poison of the fisalia. Therefore, they are treated with burns, pre-scraping the skin to remove the remnants of stinging cells.

But best of all, after seeing a flotilla of glamorous "sailboats" from afar, leave the water as soon as possible, admiring them from afar. Alas, this beauty - scorching!