---
title: "By-the-wind Sailor"
description: "Velella velella — Other animals. Velella is a genus of hydrozoa (a group of small, predatory marine cnidarians) in the family Porpitidae."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/by-the-wind-sailor
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# By-the-wind Sailor

> Velella velella — Other animals. Velella is a genus of hydrozoa (a group of small, predatory marine cnidarians) in the family Porpitidae.

- Scientific name: *Velella velella*
- Category: `other` (Other animals)
- Habitats: `sea` (Sea & coast)
- iNaturalist observations: 23374
- Wikidata: [Q1366657](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1366657)
- iNaturalist taxon: [59698](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/59698)

## Names

- en: By-the-wind Sailor
- de: Segelqualle
- es: Medusa velero
- fr: Vélelle
- nl: Bezaantje

## Countries with the most observations

US (15643), AU (1087), PT (878), ES (819), NZ (791), FR (703), CA (632), GB (580), IT (483), ZA (245), MX (197), IE (178)

## Summary

Velella is a genus of hydrozoa (a group of small, predatory marine cnidarians) in the family Porpitidae. Its only known species is Velella velella, a widely-distributed free-floating colonial animal that lives on the surface of the open ocean. It is commonly known by the names sea raft, by-the-wind sailor, purple sail, little sail, or simply Velella.
It is a member of a specialised ocean surface community that includes the better-known Portuguese man o' war. Specialized predatory molluscs prey on these cnidarians. Such predators include nudibranchs (sea slugs) in the genus Glaucus and purple snails in the genus Janthina…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velella

## Photo

![By-the-wind Sailor](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/by-the-wind-sailor/medium.jpg)

Photo: Couve · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/58527535

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/by-the-wind-sailor?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).