Errant polychaete

Errant polychaete from a Pacific coast kelp holdfast; filmed during an Invertebrate Zoology lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Annelida
• Polychaeta
• worm
• Pacific
• coast
• kelp
• marine
• biology

[maarakailet1]

That is so cool. I had a class where we had to collect and key out polychaetes. I never was proficient enough to ID on sight.

[jjparasite]

Maarakailet1 - Thanks, and see the comments below by Xenosyl (which were very helpful). In my experience, there's nothing quite like teaching an invert class to produce a heavy dose of humility!!

[jjparasite]

Xenosyl - Thanks a million for this input! We midlanders are truly envious of the coastal folks when it comes to inverts. On the other hand, given our situation, I'm convinced that the process (of trying the ID, etc.) is far more important than the results, for beginning students.

[jjparasite]

Thank you very much. We usually work pretty hard at trying to ID these worms using the Santa Barbara ship channel keys, and I simply don't remember how successful we were on this one. Thanks again! - JJ

[maarakailet1]

Ha! You said it. One student would bring me hamburgers if I would pull worms from his oyster bed sample. They are so hard to winkle out of their little tubes.

[xenosyl]

A lot of the kelp or other epifaunal species simply aren't going to be in the SB series. Most of the stations were soft bottom & the hard bottom ones were too deep for kelp.

[xenosyl]

Really nice photography. It's in the family Syllidae, genus Eusyllis. A little tighter focus on the setae & I might have been able to tell you the species.