A1 Friedman, age 9, of Queens Village, N.Y., for his question:

WHERE DOES THE PORTUGUESE MAN OF WAR LIVE?

A Portuguese man of war is a jellyfish that floats on the surface of certain oceans. You'll find it living in tropical seas and in the Gulf Stream.

A Portuguese man of war is actually a group of animals attached to a hollow float that looks like a bladder. It is not a single animal.

The full grown float is about eight inches long and it is filled with gas that allows it to stay on the surface of the water. Long stringlike filaments called tentacles hang from the float. Some of them can be 100 feet long.

The tentacles on a Portuguese man of war act as arms and are used to grasp food. They contain a poison that seems to paralyze fish on contact. They are also dangerous to man. Swimmers touching them often suffer painful welts or even shock and prostration that could be fatal.