velella

American  

[vuh-lel-uh] / vəˈlɛl ə /

noun

1. a floating colony of hydrozoans of the genus Velella, having a vertical crest that is used as a sail.

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Other Word Forms

• velellidous adjective

Etymology

Origin of velella

1825–35; < New Latin, equivalent to Latin vēl ( um ) sail + -ella -ella

Example Sentences

We were just specks in the ocean, as tiny as a velella or an anchovy, part of a big, watery world.

From Los Angeles Times

These sea snails are also voracious predators themselves and feast upon free-floating hydrozoan such as Velella velella and Portuguese man o’ war.

From Los Angeles Times

Velella are an elusive species whose vast habitat and unusual life cycle make them difficult to study.

From Los Angeles Times

Stajner left May 1 on an eight-day expedition to sample velella at multiple points along the Santa Lucia Bank and Escarpment in the Channel Islands, with the goal of getting “a better idea of their role in the local ecosystem and trying to understand what these big blooms mean,” she said.

From Los Angeles Times

Velella show up en masse when two key factors coincide, Stajner said: an upwelling of food-rich, colder water from deeper in the ocean, followed by shoreward winds and currents that direct the colonies to beaches.

From Los Angeles Times