Impurest's Guide to Animals #155 - Bearded Fireworm

January is a sad month, almost as sad as November, with both suffering from a lack of festive cheer thanks to that glory hog December. No wonder some people and animals take to drink as seen last week with the tipsy Bohemian Waxwing. This week we’re getting a little wet with what appears to be a swimming beard? Hope you guys enjoy…

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Issue #155 – Bearded Fireworm

Kingdom – Animalia

Phylum – Annelida

Class – Polychaeta

Order – Amphinomida

Family – Amphinomidae

Genus – Hermocidae

Species – carunculata

Related Species - Bearded Fireworms are members of the Polychaete Worms a group that includes the formidable Bobbit Worm (1)

Range - Bearded Fireworms can be found on the sea floor in shallow tropical waters in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea

Generic Pirate #02 and the Beard of Fire

Bearded Fireworms are medium sized segmented worms that grown on average to a length of 15cm, although specimens twice this size have been caught and reliably recorded. The most distinguished feature of this species is the row of orange gills surrounded by white bristle like structures that look like a long luxurious beard. The worms actual body is split into sixty to over a hundred segments, with each segment possessing a pair of parapodia that are used in locomotion.

Bearded Fireworms are obligate carnivores, and will willingly scavenge on carrion, as well as killing injured prey and ripping polyps off of hard corals. Because it is a slow swimmer, these fireworms rely on the venom contained in the rows of bristles running down their flanks. In any humans foolish enough to touch one of these worms, the venom leaves an intense burning sensation in the area contact was made, along with nausea and dizziness. In addition, the bristles are an irritant, and may detach into a potential attacker, and in humans need to be removed to help alleviate the pain from the envenomation (2).

Unlike the majority of worms, Bearded Fireworms have defined genders. Breeding occurs at night at the surface of the ocean, with the females glowing green to attract the attention of any males in the area. In response the males swim towards her, flashing green himself before constricting around her, often in the company of other males. Once surrounded the females releases a stream of unfertilised eggs into the water stream, which the males fertilise. The fertilised eggs and newly hatched larvae will generally float in the plankton until they mature and descend to the seabed to begin their adult lives.

Nature’s Most Wanted #9 - European Fan Worm

European Fan Worms (Sabella spallanzanii) are tube worms from the coastal waters of Europe which reach a foot in length and filter plankton out of the water using their large crown of feeding tentacles. While the adults are sedentary, the larvae drift in the plankton and have been carried in ballast water to areas as far flung as Brazil, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia, with the young worms quickly colonising new sections of sea bed and other underwater structures.

While the Fan Worms are an important part of the European marine ecosystem, where they effectively filter bacteria that cause illness in fish out of the water, in their non-native ranges they can cause great economic and ecological damage. Because they are filter feeders the worms compete for food with native filter feeders, and with no predators their numbers can expand quickly with no effective controls to halt their spread. In addition, fan worms often grow on Sea Grass, and bend their leaves with the weight of their tubes, effectively cutting off the plant’s supply of sunlight.

While Fan Worms compete with mussels and clams for food in shellfish farms, the main economic effect that the species has is its ability to alter water current flow (4). Large numbers of Fan Worms can reduce the flow of incoming nutrients and effectively create areas of low oxygen, almost stagnant ‘dead zones’. At current the only way that this species can be contained is by manual removal of adult worms, although areas are often quickly recolonised due to the quick maturation rate of this species and large number of young produced per breeding cycle.

Bibliography

1 -www.arkive.org

2 - Mehr, S.F.M., Verdes, A., DeSalle, R., Sparks, J., Pieribone, V. and D. F. Gruber. 2015. Transcriptome sequencing and annotation of the polychaete Hermodice carunculata (Annelida, Amphinomidae)”, BMC Genomics, 16:445.

3 - http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=292

4 - http://www.iucngisd.org/gisd/species.php?sc=1046

Picture References

1 - http://www.weheartdiving.com/wp-content/uploads/bearded-fireworm-hermodice-carunculata-featured-image.jpg

2 - https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TaY4Vz0zfII/maxresdefault.jpg

3 - https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ESPgD2erlhU/hqdefault.jpg

4 - http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0010/636751/Euro-fan-worm.jpg

Worms, you have to love them, or you know be repulsed by them. Next week we have a buoyant issue, but until then make sure to critic, comment and suggest future issues as well as making sure you check past issues in Impurest’s Bestiary.

Many Thanks

Impurest Cheese

Want more IGTA? For another squirmy issue which can light up an ocean, click here to see the Groovy Green Bomber Worm. Or for a dose of vintage nightmare fuel, click here to meet the Brutal Bobbit Worm.

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The Worms are Back!!

It's so pretty, like something out of a fantasy book

Can these worms change colour at will or is it just a once off thing for mating?

@captainmarvel4ever: It's name suggests that too. Just a shame it's related to a four foot long monster that bites fish in half before dragging them into its burrowof doom.

@black_wreath: Apparently it's whenever they want.

@impurestcheese: Have you really made 155 of these? This is so unexpected in a comic site, but really cool. Feel free to tag me in your tag list. :)

@tparks: Thanks for the comment. It's actually 156, one issue was a seasonal special with no number. I'll make sure to add you to the callout list for next week's issue and link you to the library as well.

Fluffy : O

Looks awesome. The fluff and brightness together makes me think of a comet or something.

It looks like a unique caterpillar in appearance, one with lots more fluff and living in the water.

@bella_blackstar: Indeed, although don't think that means you can hug it. It'll likely be painful if you were to try.

@pipxeroth: Yeah I can see that, thanks for the comment

@dshipp17: Yeah it does, some people say that they are akin to marine centipedes as well.

@impurestcheese: They look like furry shrimp. Is a sea anemone a plant or an animal?

@ficopedia: Hmm too elongated to be a shrimp I think. Sea Anenomes are definitely animals, they are related to jellyfish, corrals and hydra.

Interesting coloring

@blueecho: It's probably to warn predators that it is venemous

@impurestcheese: Or Batesian mimicry :)

@blueecho: Perhaps but that's unlikely since it has its own venom

@impurestcheese: Yes true

Polycheates either amazing me with their beauty or scare the bejesus out of me with little in between :p. One thing though, I though most them had defined genders while the Oligocheates (Earthworms) and Hirundea (Leeches I might be wrong with the wording) where Hermaphrodites. Or are you talking about none annelid worms too, like Flatworms?

@laflux: It was in regards to the entire worm umbrella. I assume that this one is somewhere in between the beauty and the beastly.

It was definitely beaut but the bristles dragged it down a bit

@laflux: Ah I see

I love animals that hurt to touch but are beautiful to look at.

This one is only 500 million years old.