For #PrinterSolstice prompt analogous colours I made linocut of a Portuguese Man o’ War floating at the surface of the sea. 🧪🐡 #invertebrates These are beautiful but deadly creatures, also known as bluebottles, resemble jellyfish but are actually colonial organisms called siphonophores. 🧵1/ - ThreadSky

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minouette.bsky.social • 397 days ago

For #PrinterSolstice prompt analogous colours I made linocut of a Portuguese Man o’ War floating at the surface of the sea. 🧪🐡 #invertebrates

These are beautiful but deadly creatures, also known as bluebottles, resemble jellyfish but are actually colonial organisms called siphonophores. 🧵1/

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minouette.bsky.social•397 days ago

They are made up of many genetically identical zooids which each perform different roles. They are filled with venomous microscopic nematocysts which can cause a painful sting which can kill a fish, or even on occasion a person. 🧵2/3

minouette.bsky.social•397 days ago

They get their name from their resemblance to the Portuguese man o’ war sailing warships. Above the waterline is the gas filled structure or bladder called pneumatophore which acts as a sort of float and a sail. Below the waterline is a cluster of zooids of several sorts.

🧵3/3

maqusan.bsky.social•396 days ago

They're deadly? Standard fixture on Sydney beaches and they're not much worse than a bee sting. Do they trigger allergic reactions or something?

minouette.bsky.social•396 days ago

If the venom gets into the lymph nodes apparently it can trigger a response much like an allergic reaction including swelling larynx and an inability to breathe.

It depends on size (of the person) and the number of tentacles encountered too. Thousands get stunk but on rare occasions people do die.

minouette.bsky.social•396 days ago

*stung

Apparently kids who stung all around their trunk are at risk.

maqusan.bsky.social•396 days ago

That would make sense. You usually end up stung around your legs as they wash in and out around the shoreline dragging their tentacles behind them. Saw one on my last trip back to Australia in the bogey hole at Bronte. The dads were dutifully shepherding it away.

lampichthys.bsky.social•397 days ago

I saw my first one in the wild just last week!

minouette.bsky.social•397 days ago

Ooh! Gorgeous colours!

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