Peacock featherworm
| Peacock featherworm | ||||||||||||
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Peacock featherworm ( Sabella pavonina ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Sabella Pavonina | ||||||||||||
| Savigny , 1820 |
The peacock feather worm ( Sabella pavonina ) is a species from the family of feather worms (Sabellidae) that lives sessile in tubes on the sea floor .
features
When these worms stretch their feather-shaped tentacles out of their tubes, it is more like a peacock with wheels than a worm. This peculiarity also led to the specific epithet pavonina after the scientific name for the peacock Pavo . The feather crown consists of two parts, which are usually split into approximately the same number of filaments on each side. The number of filaments is between 25 and 50 on each side. In the Sabella pavonina var. Bicoronata variety, however , the two parts of the tentacle crown are very different. One example can have 41 filaments on one side and 83 filaments on the other.
The peacock feather worm can be 25 to 50 cm long, but usually only a 10 cm long part of the tube protrudes from the ground. The worm is very thin and usually reaches less than an inch in diameter. Like all articulated worms , the elongated body consists of many similarly built segments, in the peacock feather worm these can reach a number of 100 to 600. The parchment-like tube is a product excreted from the skin of the peacock featherworm.
Occurrence and habitat
The peacock featherworm occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean .
It lives in the mud or sand of the seabed ( benthal ) in a tube protruding from the bottom, from the upper opening of which the delicate tentacles are stuck out in order to filter food particles from the water. If the tentacles are touched or a shadow falls on them, the animals immediately withdraw into the tube. He can only change his location if he leaves it.
Individual evidence
- ^ DW Ewer: Hornell and the Genus Spirographis Viviani (Polychaeta: Sabellidae). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 26, 3, pp. 426–431, 1946 full text ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.0 MB)
literature
- John Barrett and M. Yonge: Collins Pocket Guide to the Sea Shore . Collins, London 1977
- Pamela Forey: Lett's Pocket Guide to Sea and Seashore Life . Letts, London 1994 ISBN 1-85238-448-4
Web links
- Peacock worm - Sabella pavonina images and UK distribution map at MarLIN - The Marine Life Information Network
- Peacock worm - Sabella pavonina Pictures and video at ARKive