[1][2] In addition to being weakly bioluminescent in blues and greens, comb jellies produce a rainbow effect similar to that seen on an oil slick, and which is caused by interference of incident light on the eight rows of moving cilia or comb rows which propel the organism.

The comb rows also function as chemical sense organs, serving the same role as insect antennae.

[3] This species, like other ctenophores, has a large body cavity and is carnivorous, feeding on copepods and small crustaceans snagged by its two extremely sticky and robust tentacles (see Tentaculata).

These are long and contractile with numerous lateral tentillae or side branches bearing colloblasts, each of which consists of a coiled spiral filament, structurally similar to a nematocyst, but instead of injecting a toxin, release an adhesive substance which ensnares the prey.

[5] A study in the Barents Sea found that it ingests prey ranging from small copepods to amphipods and krill, but that its staple diet consists of large copepod species such as Calanus finmarchicus, C. glacialis, C. hyperboreus and Metridia longa.