{"id":46,"date":"2015-04-13T20:05:50","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T19:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/?p=46"},"modified":"2016-09-01T13:23:26","modified_gmt":"2016-09-01T12:23:26","slug":"first-encounter-with-forskalia-edwardsi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/2015\/04\/13\/first-encounter-with-forskalia-edwardsi\/","title":{"rendered":"First encounter with Forskalia edwardsi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On the same dive when I first visited Cathedral cave, I was lucky enough to come across <em>Forskalia edwardsi<\/em> for the first time, a fascinating specimen that deserves a separate post.\u00a0 <em>Forskalia edwardsi<\/em> (Grand siphonophore) is actually not a single animal, but a colony of polyps each serving a specific purpose.\u00a0 For instance, the top part of the colony serves to assist the colony in floating, whereas lower down one finds polyps responsible for feeding and reproduction, for instance.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a stinging species common in the Mediterranean &#8211; and is also bioluminescent.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_47\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-47\" style=\"width: 2704px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/ed_creature_still.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-47 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/ed_creature_still.jpg\" alt=\"Forskalia Edwardsi (Grand Siphonophore)\" width=\"2704\" height=\"1520\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/ed_creature_still.jpg 2704w, https:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/ed_creature_still-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/ed_creature_still-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/ed_creature_still-2000x1124.jpg 2000w, https:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/ed_creature_still-171x96.jpg 171w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2704px) 100vw, 2704px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-47\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Forskalia Edwardsi (Grand Siphonophore)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div id='stb-container-3748' class='stb-container-css stb-info-container stb-caption stb-collapsible stb-visible stb-image-big stb-ltr stb-corners stb-shadow'><div id='stb-caption-box-3748' class='stb-info-caption_box stb_caption stb-caption-box' ><aside class='stb-caption-icon'><img src='http:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-special-textboxes\/themes\/stb-dark\/info.png'><\/aside><span>Dive Log Info<\/span><div id=\"stb-tool-3748\" class=\"stb-tool\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"stb-toolimg-3748\" src=\"http:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-special-textboxes\/themes\/stb-dark\/minus.png\" title=\"Hide\" \/><\/div><\/div><div id='stb-body-box-3748' class='stb-info-body_box stb_body stb-body-box' ><strong>Date:<\/strong> 19\/02\/2016<br \/>\n<strong>Site:<\/strong> Wied l-Ghasri<br \/>\n<strong> Time in: <\/strong>14:00<strong><br \/>\nTime out: <\/strong>15:00<strong><br \/>\nRuntime:<\/strong> 60min<br \/>\n<strong>Max Depth:<\/strong> 18.8m<br \/>\n<strong> Bottom Temperature:<\/strong> 15\u00baC<br \/>\n<strong> Visibility:<\/strong> Good<br \/>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<script language='javascript' type='text\/javascript'>function getWR360PopupSkin(){return 'light_clean';}<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the same dive when I first visited Cathedral cave, I was lucky enough to come across Forskalia edwardsi for the first time, a fascinating specimen that deserves a separate post.\u00a0 Forskalia edwardsi (Grand siphonophore) is actually not a single animal, but a colony of polyps each serving a specific purpose.\u00a0 For instance, the top [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25,19,16,22],"class_list":["post-46","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-forskalia-edwardsi","tag-georgia-mainente","tag-gozo","tag-wied-l-ghasri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157,"href":"https:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions\/157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}