---
title: Torres Hydroid (Thyroscyphus torresii)
scientific_name: Thyroscyphus torresii
common_name: Torres Hydroid
taxon: Hydrozoans
published: 2026-08-08T08:16:55.432Z
updated: 2026-08-08T11:12:23.156Z
tags: Torres Hydroid, Thyroscyphus torresii, Hydrozoans, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/stinging/hydrozoans/torres-hydroid
---

# Torres Hydroid (*Thyroscyphus torresii*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Hydrozoans (*Hydrozoa*)
- **Size:** 10 cm
- **Depth:** 5-40 m
- **Diet:** Filter feeder
- **Activity:** Cathemeral
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** Shaded overhangs and deeper rock faces
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Budding
- **Hazard:** Dangerous, Venomous

## How to recognise it

- sparse pale colony, less densely branched than its relative
- polyp cups noticeably large for the size of the colony
- on shaded rock below about 5 m
- height up to 10 cm

A sparser relative of the shrubby hydroid, reaching about 10 cm (4 in), with fewer branches and polyp cups that are large relative to the colony. It grows on shaded rock faces and under overhangs, generally deeper than 5 m (16 ft).

Separating hydroid species underwater is largely a matter of branching pattern and cup shape, and beyond a certain point it needs a microscope - which is why most photographs of hydroids on this coast are filed at genus level or worse. That is worth stating rather than glossing over: this catalogue names what can honestly be named, and a hydroid is one of the groups where a confident field identification is often not possible. What is reliable is the habit - stiff pale colonies in shade, facing the current, stinging cells present but mild.

## Also known as

- **Russian:** Гидроид Торреса

## Scientific synonyms

- *Cnidoscyphus torresii* (Busk, 1852)
- *Laomedea torresii* Busk, 1852
- *Thyroscyphus regularis* Jäderholm, 1896
- *Thyroscyphus simplex* Allman, 1888

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/stinging/hydrozoans/torres-hydroid)*
*Updated: August 8, 2026*