描述
*Olindias phosphorica*, the 'Cigar' Jelly as we call it, because of its habit of rolling itself into a cigar-shaped blob by day, during which it rolls around in the shallows and surf, awaiting nightfall before becoming an efficient hunter of planktonic organisms usually smaller than itself. Here the cigar jelly is fully expanded and in hunting mode, by night. The pinky quadrants within the bells of these individuals are the gonads of this sexual phase of a typical hydrozoan life history, which characteristically alternates between a sexual, medusoid phase and an asexual, hydroid phase, which remains attached to overhanging rocks and is never a free soul!
Lizard Island, Australia (2004)
Nikon F4 | Micro Nikkor 105mm f2.8 | Fuji Velvia