Blue button

Porpita porpita · A small floating colony with a golden-brown disc and bright blue tentacles, drifting on warm seas.

Blue button
Photo: Timothy A. Gonsalves, CC BY-SA 4.0
Blue button
Photo: (c) Emily Roberts, some rights reserved (CC BY), CC BY 4.0
Blue button
Photo: Jean-Marie Gradot, CC BY-SA 4.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumCnidaria
ClassHydrozoa
OrderAnthoathecata
FamilyPorpitidae
GenusPorpita
SpeciesPorpita porpita

Where it lives

Warm tropical and subtropical Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, plus the Mediterranean.

Fun facts

  • Despite looking like a single jellyfish, a blue button is actually a whole colony of hydrozoan polyps working together.
  • It can grow up to 30 mm across, staying afloat thanks to a hard, golden-brown disc about an inch wide.
  • It has just one mouth, tucked under its float, which it uses both to eat prey and to expel waste.
  • Although it drifts passively with currents and wind, it actively hunts live crabs and fish, unlike its relative Velella.

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The Blue button was the creature in a regional daily on November 12, 2026. Can you identify tomorrow's from its photos? Every day brings a new creature to place from kingdom to genus, map and name.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).