Quappworm
| Quappworm | ||||||||||||
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Echiurus echiurus , from Brockhaus-Efron, 1905 |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Echiurus echiurus | ||||||||||||
| ( Pallas , 1766) |
The quappworm , also known as sea burbot ( Echiurus echiurus ), is a representative of the hedgehog worms (Echiura) from the Echiuridae family , which occurs in the North Atlantic up to the mouth of the Elbe and the Kattegat .
features
The approximately 7 to 15 cm, sometimes up to 20 cm long and 2.5 cm wide cylindrical trunk of Echiurus echiurus has a grayish brown to yellowish gray color and is provided with 21 to 23 rings of papillae, each with 4 to 5 Alternate rings of small papillae. There are two bristles on the front of the abdomen and two rings of 5 to 9 anal bristles around the anus at the end of the body. The spatulate, about 3 to 4 cm long proboscis sits at the front end near the mouth and is orange with indistinct brown longitudinal stripes. On the belly side it has a noticeable eyelash groove.
The animal has a tortuous bowel, which is covered in front by 2 pairs of nephridia and at the end of which is a pair of long anal vesicles with eyelash funnels.
Distribution, habitat and way of life
Echiurus echiurus is a Holarctic species of colder waters and is also widespread in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean including the North Sea as far as the Elbe estuary and the Kattegat , where it lives in the lower tidal zone and buried below in the sand or mud. Here it is so common in places that it is sometimes the only food for predatory eels living here . The quappworm's diet consists of detritus, which is ingested from the substrate with the proboscis and transported to the mouth via the cilia.
Life cycle
Females and males are the same size in Echiurus echiurus . The animals mate in winter, with external fertilization taking place. It created free-floating, several weeks as zooplankton living Trochophora - larvae that later in a gradual process to ground-dwelling worms metamorphose .
Initial description
The quappworm was the first species of hedgehog worm ever to be described by Peter Simon Pallas in 1766 under the name Lumbricus echiurus and thus placed in a genus with earthworms . The French zoologist Guérin-Méneville established the genus Echiurus in 1831 , whose type species received the species name Echiurus echiurus , which is still valid today .
literature
- JD Fish, S. Fish: A Student's Guide to the Seashore. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2011. p. 380.
- Fritz Baltzer : Echiurida. In: Thilo Krumbach (Ed.): Handbuch der Zoologie, second volume, Vermes Amera , pp. 403–448. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and Leipzig 1934.
- Torsten Gislén: Investigations on the ecology of Echiurus. Lunds Universitets Arsskrifter, Nye Fölge 36 (10), pp. 1-36. Lund 1940.
- Heinz Streble, Annegret Bäuerle: What do I find on the beach? Kosmos, Stuttgart 2017, p. 19.
Web links
- Lexicon of biology : Echiurus
- MJ de Kluijver et al. Echiurus echiurus (Pallas, 1766)
Individual evidence
- ^ H. Kühl: Eels and Quappwurm in front of the Elbe estuary. Information for the fishing industry 12. S. 20. Institute for Inshore and Inland Fisheries, Hamburg 1965.
- ↑ Meredith Gould-Somero: Echiura. In: Arthur Giese (Ed.): Reproduction of Marine Invertebrates V3: Annelids and Echiurans. Academic Press, New York 1975. pp. 277-312, here pp. 304f.