VELELLA

‖Ve‐lel″la (?), n. [[NL., dim. from L. velum a veil, a sail.]] (Zoöl.) Any species of oceanic Siphonophora belonging to the genus Velella. ☞ These creatures are brilliantly colored and float at the surface of the sea. They have an oblong, disklike body, supported by a thin chitinous plate, from which rises a thin diagonal crest which acts as a sail. The feeding and reproductive zooids hang down from the under side of the disk.