strange worm-like animal ..

Hi again

this week I will be entertaining you a lot

a 2 bucks question: what could it be ??

multiple choice:

a - nemertean ?

b - enteropneust (acorn worm) ?

c - strange flatworm ?

d - none of the above

I opt for b - enteropneust, I also think that the animal might not complete, lacking the proboscis

it's obviously a lab photo made in Fiji

does anybody have photos of similar worms ??

A

Hey Art,

Is that two Canuck bucks? You may want to up your offer!

How about a Sipunculan??? (I know as Peanut worm)

Whatever, it's gross.

Cheers,

Marli

Marli

you are probably right, have to go up .. let's say 10 Canadian bucks !

it's not a peanut worm, that's for sure, we got 3 species of sipunculans, too

I also remember this guy was very very slimy (sipunculans are usually not)

most people have probably never seen an acorn worm (if it is one), unless there are some fishing guys sucking up holes with a yabby pump to get fish bait .. by the way, if somobody has a yabby pump, it's worth to try - YOU GET PLETY INTERESTING STUFF FROM BURROWS !!!

here is for example what I collected with a yabby pump in Fiji last January:

1. a very rare alpheid shrimp, Leptalpheus cf. pacificus, previously known only from Hawaii

2. a blood-red hesionid polychaete worm - new genus and species !

3. a red flatworm, probably undescribed - tried to email the picture to Leslie Newman, but probably used a wrong email ..

4. a goneplacid crab, maybe new species

here is what got from echiuran burrows in Venezuela last year:

1. a small bivalve mollusc, new genus and species, and the guy who is studying it now is not even sure about the family !

2. a new species of Leptalpheus

3. two pea crabs (genus Pinnixa), one bright orange, and a smaller one, one of them possibly new

I made a small "collage" (see attachment) of some of the animals we collected from burrows in Florida, Vietnam, Venezuela and Fiji

so it's really worth to prospect your area ! you can get new or rare stuff in Europe, Australia, South Africa or the W coast of the USA - and these things are almost never photographed

so if you are not diving today and are bored, take your yabby and go pumping !!!

and if you get something - please take a picture and preserve the specimen (70% Et OH)

cheers

Art

just wanted to add this:

you probably noticed the blood red colour of some of these burrow commensals ..

now for the bristle worm - I was told its blood contains haemoglobine, just like ours (or maybe a bit different in composition), for respiration in low oxygene environment, such as a burrow; although the burrow is frequently ventilated by the host, it becomes hypoxic, especially at low tide ..

have no explanation for the red colour in the polyclad though, it has no proper blood system, so the red colour is due to some other red pigments ..

cheerio

A

For the uninitiated - a "yabby" pump is called a "slurp gun" at bait shops here in the states. They're good for collecting fish too.

Cheers

James

James

actually a slurp gun is a different thing !

yabby pump is a steel bait suction pump (Alvey's pumps are the best)

slurp gun is a transparent hard-plastic pump, and yes, used mostly to slurp fish and shrimps, e.g. from crevices .. I found it not very useful for burros though

the yabby pump is more powerful and has a better suction, but is difficult to use when submerged (the water streams in and you have no suction)

and of course, you'll also need a sieve !!! I use 2 mm mesh-size: the water with sand/mud passes through relatively quickly, so you can work faster ..

actually, your kitchen macaroni sieve or any other screen will do it

forgot to say: YOU NEED A LOT OF PATIENCE - you'll never get your animals with the first strike, also, I usualy pump twice very quickly, sometimes, with the first pump you only bring animals from deeper regions of the burrow to near the opening, but it's with the second powerful pump that you get it .. I guess most Ossies and Kiwis know how to use a yabby !

cheerio

Art

This string is a little dated now, but I will let you know anyway that the picture is definitely of a nemertean worm. Sorry, but I can't quite tell anything else about it.

I specialize in these worms. Since some of you are among the elite who were even aware of their existence, I would be very interested in your help anytime you can get a good picture of one of these worms and can collect it (by dropping it into a large volume of 70% or higher alcohol; about 15:1 alcohol to worm volume). I would also appreciate suggestions for how might tap into more folks like you.

I have very good intertidal collections of nemerteans from much of north america, and modest collections from various shallow-water sites in the Caribbean, Sao Paulo State, and Japan. Subtidal species are almost unstudied, and even intertidal forms have barely been touched in most of the world outside of Europe and North America.

Incidentally, Leslie Newman worked with me some years ago and moved to the Auckland natural history museum in New Zealand about a year ago.

Actually, after having gone back to the pic, I can tell you more. It's one of the nemerteans that normally crawls around on the bottom, and would look long and wormy, maybe kind of snake-like. But three groups have species that have dorso-ventral musculature that enables them to greatly flatten the sides of the intestinal region, so that they look like lateral fins as in this pic. They simultaneously shorten the body, thereby making it pretty stiff and then they can swim in eel-like fashion by generating sinusoidal waves along the body.

Two of the three groups are very distantly related, so this swimming ability has evolved independently in these. In fact, one of the groups normally burrows through sand and mud, the others live in cracks and crevices and among stuff on the bottom surface.

End of lecture

Welcome to WP. I'ts great to have another worm lover around even if you do like them smooth & I like mine annulated!

Can you give me family or anything else on the pictured specimen? It's deposited here and it would be great to something besides nemertea on the label.

Cheers, Leslie

If it has a longitudinal slit running more or less the full length on each side of the head (up to the slight constriction - "neck"), it's a lineiform heteronemertean. If it does not have these, you probably can see more indistinct transverse groove on each side that starts at the "neck" and runs toward the dorsal midline, probably backward at an angle. That would make it one of two hoplonemertean groups.

The pic shows the ventral surface and I can't tell much from it but I think I see a ventral mouth, running backward from under the red brain. That would make it a heteronemertean. The "fins" on this are the most pronounced I have ever seen and the head shape is wrong for a Cerebratulus (the most common group for swimming heteronemerteans in North America). So, best I can do is call it Lineiformes.

Do you know if it was photographed while swimming?

--Jon Norenburg

It was not swimming. We had it in a small petri dish and it frequently twisted from side to side before it was completely narc'ed with mag chloride.

Thanks for the info on classification. Art took several pictures some of which show the longitudinal slits fairly well. I'll send them to you via your regular email.