Porpitidae: taxon details and analytics

Domain
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Cnidaria
Class
Hydrozoa
Order
Anthoathecata
Family
Porpitidae
Genus
Species
Scientific Name
Porpitidae

Summary description from Wikipedia:

Chondrophore

The chondrophores or porpitids are a small group of hydrozoans in the family Porpitidae. Though it derives from an outdated name for this lineage, some find the term chondrophore still useful as a synonym for members of the family Porpitidae – porpitids – when discussing the two genera contained in Porpita and Velella, to avoid confusion with the near-identical name of the former.

They all live at the surface of the open ocean, and are colonies of carnivorous, free-floating hydroids. The chondrophores look like a single organism, but are actually colonial animals, made up of orderly cooperatives of polyps living under specialized sail-structures. The colony's role in the plankton community is similar to that of pelagic jellyfish.

The most familiar members of the family Porpitidae are the blue button (Porpita porpita) and the by-the-wind sailor (Velella velella).

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Porpitidae in languages:

Japanese
ギンカクラゲ科
Korean
푸른우산관해파리과
Thai
วงศ์ แมงกะพรุนแว่นตาพระอินทร์

Images from inaturalist.org observations:

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Porpitidae
©pierre_mascar, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Porpitidae
©mathieulimousi, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)