Hydra (Coelenterata) Movies

Hydra Video No. 1 - A close-up view as a wandering cyclops is captured in the stinging tentacle of a hydra; under oblique illumination with a playing time of 26.6 seconds. Choose a playback format that matches your connection speed: 28.8k (modem), 56.6k (modem), or T1/Cable/DSL, or download this video clip in MPEG format (3.53 MB).

Hydra Video No. 2 - The cyclops that got away -- this plucky little crustacean narrowly escapes the clutches of a lurking hydra; under oblique illumination with a playing time of 8.4 seconds. Choose a playback format that matches your connection speed: 28.8k (modem), 56.6k (modem), or T1/Cable/DSL, or download this video clip in MPEG format (11.1 MB).

Hydra Video No. 3 - A hydra grabs an unwary cyclops that wandered too close, and makes a fine supper of it; under oblique illumination with a playing time of 34.9 seconds. Choose a playback format that matches your connection speed: 28.8k (modem), 56.6k (modem), or T1/Cable/DSL, or download this video clip in MPEG format (14.5 MB).

Hydra Video No. 4 - One cyclops eludes the attention of this hydra, but the next cyclops isn't so lucky and is grabbed, stunned, and consumed -- a zoom shot shows close-up detail of the hydra stuffing the cyclops down its gullet; under oblique illumination with a playing time of 67.7 seconds. Choose a playback format that matches your connection speed: 28.8k (modem), 56.6k (modem), or T1/Cable/DSL, or download this video clip in MPEG format (12.4 MB).

Hydra Video No. 5 - A cyclops swims too close to a hydra's stinging tentacle and is speared by a nematocyst, which has barbs that anchor it to the hydra tentacle; under oblique illumination with a playing time of 29.9 seconds. Choose a playback format that matches your connection speed: 28.8k (modem), 56.6k (modem), or T1/Cable/DSL, or download this video clip in MPEG format (28.2 MB).

Hydras belong to the phylum Coelenterata (also called Cnidaria), which includes corals, sea anemones, and jellyfish. Coelenterates are primarily marine animals, but hydras are found in freshwater ponds, lakes, and streams. Hydras are also atypical coelenterates because they do not have a medusa (jellyfish) stage as part of their life cycle as do most other coelenterates. They live and reproduce sexually and asexually, but only in the tube-shaped polyp form. However, they do have nematocysts, or cnidae, the microscopic intracellular stinging capsules characteristic of this phylum and for which it is named.