#Annelidology

[dougdimmadodo]

Caribbean Christmas Tree Worm (Spirobranchus giganteus)

Family: Serpulid Worm Family (Serpulidae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Unassessed

Found attached to coral reefs in the Caribbean Sea and Indo-Pacific Ocean regions, the Caribbean Christmas Tree Worm lives in a hard, rocky tube (made up of calcium carbonate particles that it has cemented together using an extremely thick mucus that it secretes from its body), with only a pair of colourful, frilly structures lined with small feeding tentacles that protrude from its head being exposed, resembling a tiny pair of colourful Christmas trees. These frilled structures are primarily used for feeding (with the tentacles that line them capturing plankton and tiny pieces of detritus from the water and passing them down to the worm’s mouth near the opening of the tube), but also allow the worm to breathe (with gasses being exchanged between the water surrounding them and the blood within them across their thin outer surface) and can function similarly to rudimentary eyes, with light-sensitive spots on their tentacles (as well as a second set of eye-like structures just above the mouth) detecting potential predators as they come near the worm. At the first sign of a predator the worm quickly pulls its feeding structures back into its tube and blocks the tube’s opening with the only other exposed part of its body, a spiny lid-like structure called an operculum, which is sufficient to keep out almost all threats and means that this species faces little predation despite being only around 3.8cm (1.5 inches) in length. Caribbean Christmas Tree Worms may live for over 30 years, and will live their entire adult lives without ever leaving their tube - they reproduce by releasing gametes into the water through the opening of their tube, and once these gametes fuse they rapidly develop into larval worms which will live as free-swimming plankton for 9-12 days before burrowing into a coral reef and beginning to construct a tube of their own. The feeding structures of different individuals of this species can vary dramatically in their colouration (with pink-on-white, white-on-blue, black-on-yellow, pure yellow and pure orange all being common), and on reefs where multiple worms have settled in close proximity to one another the multi-coloured “forests” that their feeding structures create can be quite beautiful.

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Animal Advent Calendar - Merry Christmas!

Image Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/49517-Spirobranchus-giganteus

More information on this species, and a look at what its body looks like inside the tube: https://www.howitworksdaily.com/meet-the-christmas-tree-worm/

[bearsintreesofficial]

Are you a cryptid or a worm?

this is a false dichotomy

worms are the ultimate cryptid

once cryptids she’s their corporeal form and relinquish their multitudes to the ORB they become one with the dirt and are reborn as a worm

god did you even study astral dirt orientation and crypto-annelidology?