ANNELIDA

Serpulidae

🌀🐚 Just like the Spirorbis tube worms in my previous post, 𝘚𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳 is a sedentary annelid living in its own calcareous tube. As you see here, it is a shy little guy and it prefers to withdraw inside the tube when it gets scared!

👑 🫁 𝘚. 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳 uses the branchial crown both to eat and breathe. You can see the “branches” moving as it tries to catch food particles in the water.

ANNELIDA

Serpulidae

🌀🐚 You have probably seen these small white swirls on algae or under rocks before, but did you know they were worms?!

🪱 Spirorbis are small sedentary worms, living in their own calcium carbonate coiled tube shell. Just like earthworms in your garden, they belong to annelids (a phylum of +22 000 species) and they have a segmented body.

⏰ 🌀The rotation of the swirl is specific to each species! This one, Spiorobis spirorbis is always coiled clockwise and super common on this brown algae (fucus).

🫣🌊 They can completely retract within the tube, sealed by the operculum. It protects them from predators and turbulent tides but also from desiccation when they get out of the water…