Saltwater Worms

Lugworm (Common)

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:42:15 +0000

The Common Lugworm is a segmented worm that can be pink, red, green, brown or black. It can be seen all along the English coast where there are muddy shorelines and also in sheltered estuaries, but it is very rarely seen because it lives in burrows. The burrows can be ‘U’ or ‘J’ shaped and can be as deep as twenty to forty centimetres.

The Common Lugworm can grow up to twenty centimetres long and it has a firm body. Its head is quite small and holds no eyes. The middle part of its body has segments with tiny ‘parapods’ which are like little-legs covered in bristles. Its abdomen is narrower than the rest of the body and has lots of segments without the parapods. The Common Lugworm also has a ‘proboscis’ which is a long thread-like tubular organ which shoots out of the worm’s mouth when it wants to feed.

Female Lugworms lay their eggs in burrows and when the larvae hatch out of the eggs, they crawl to the surface where they are taken to different locations by water currents. The larvae eventually settle on the sand and live inside tubes made out of mucus for about two months. Then they drift in the water again before they eventually settle on the sand again to make burrows of their own and to develop into adult Common Lugworms.

Ragworm (Harbour)

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:42:40 +0000

The Ragworm is a reddish-brown segmented worm that is also known as the Harbour Worm. It can be found all along the English coast where there are muddy shorelines and also in estuaries, but it is very rarely seen because it lives in burrows. The burrows can be ‘U’ or ‘J’ shaped and they can be as deep as twenty metres.

The Ragworm can grow up to six to twelve centimetres in length and it has a body that is divided into around ninety to one hundred and twenty segments. It has a flattened body and each segment has a pair of leg-like flaps called ‘parapods’ which are covered in tiny bristles. The parapods help the Ragworm to crawl and swim. It also has a ‘toothed proboscis’ which is a long thread-like tubular organ which shoots out of the worm’s mouth when it wants to feed. The Ragworm sometimes bites and the bite feels a bit like a bee sting.

The female Ragworm carries her eggs inside her body until they are ready to hatch and then releases them in her burrow. Both the male and female Ragworm die shortly after the eggs have been released. The newly hatched larvae stay very close to the burrow where they develop into adult Ragworms.

Sea Mouse

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:43:09 +0000

The Sea Mouse is an unusual looking marine worm, although it really doesn’t look like a worm. Its body is covered in a dense mat of bristle-like hairs which gives it an almost mouse-like appearance and this is why it has the name ‘Sea Mouse’. It is widespread around the English coast and can be found in shallow water and in water as deep as a thousand metres. However, it is very rarely seen as it buries itself head first in the sand.

The Sea Mouse can grow up to a length of around twenty centimetres and the bristles on its body are usually a deep red colour, but when light shines on them they can have a vibrant blue, green, yellow or bronze sheen to them. It is very difficult to recognise the head, but sometimes two-horn like organs can be spotted at the front of its body. It uses these organs when it wants to feed.

The female Sea Mouse is believed to carry her eggs under her body for a short while and then releases them directly into the water where they hatch. It is not sure whether the larvae become part of zooplankton for a short time or just settle immediately on the seabed to develop into adult Sea Mice.

Worm (Bootlace Sea)

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:43:34 +0000

The Bootlace Sea Worm is believed to be the longest worm in the world and can be found all around the shores of England, although it is very rarely seen. It is called a Ribbon Worm because it has a very long thin flattened body that is not divided into segments like many other worms. It also has a ‘proboscis’ which is a long, thread-like tubular sucking organ that shoots out of the worm’s mouth when it wants to feed.

The Bootlace Sea Worm can reach up to thirty metres in length, but is usually around five to fifteen metres long and about five millimetres wide. It lies curled up under large stones and muddy sands in shallow waters and rock pools. It is dark brown or black with a purplish sheen. Its head is only slightly wider than the rest of its body and it has around ten to twenty dark coloured eyes on each side of its head.

The eggs are laid in a string-like gelatine mass in the sea where they are left to develop and hatch. The larvae first become part of zooplankton before they settle on the seabed to develop into adult Bootlace Sea Worms.

Worm (Green Leaf)

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:44:00 +0000

The Green Leaf Worm is a bright green or a yellow-green segmented worm that can be found all around the English coast. It is quite an active worm that can be seen moving around on rocks at low tide, especially on dull cloudy days. It can also be seen in rock crevices, beds of barnacles and mussels and also amongst kelp. Kelp is a very large type of brown seaweed.

The Green Leaf Worm can grow five to fifteen centimetres in length and has a body which is divided into around two hundred segments. It is also called the ‘paddle worm’ because it has lots of stiff paddle-like bristles that project and run along the sides of its body. It uses these bristles to move along surfaces and to breathe through. The Green Leaf Worm has a ‘proboscis’ which is a long thread-like tubular organ that shoots out of the worm’s mouth when it wants to feed.

The egg mass of the Green Leaf Worm looks like little pouches of bright green slime which is often attached to seaweed and small stones during the summer months. The newly hatched larvae become part of zooplankton for a short while before they settle on the seabed to develop into adult Green Leaf Worms.

Worm (Honeycomb Sea)

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:44:28 +0000

The Honeycomb Sea Worm is a segmented dark brown or black sea worm that has three pairs of flattened bristles on its body. It can be found along the south and west coasts of England and sometimes on the south-east and east coasts. It lives on exposed beaches which have half buried rocks, fine sand and fine shell segments, but it is very rarely seen. It lives with other Honeycomb Sea Worms to form a colony.

The Honeycomb Sea Worm is around four centimetres long and has a rounded head with short tentacles that catch food and pass it to the mouth. Honeycomb Sea Worms build tubes by gluing fine sand and fine shell segments together and they often hide inside these tubes. An individual tube can be up to twenty centimetres in length and all the tubes squashed together seem to create a large honeycomb-looking colony. Some colonies can be two or three metres wide and a metre deep.

The female Honeycomb Sea Worm can lay thousands of eggs at a time and the larvae hatch out directly into the water. They first become part of zooplankton for six weeks or as long as six months and then settle onto established colonies where they build their own tubes to live in.

Worm (Peacock Sea)

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:44:55 +0000

The Peacock Sea Worm is a long and thin worm that is segmented. It can be found around many of the English coasts in lower shore waters, but it is not often seen because it spends most of its time hiding in a tube. The tube is flexible and covered in mud and usually stands about ten centimetres above the surface of the seabed.

The Peacock Sea Worm can reach a length of around thirty centimetres and a width of about four millimetres. The body is a grey-purple or a yellow-orange colour and it has feathery fan-like tentacles on the top of its head which have brown, red or violet colours in them. The Peacock Sea Worm extends the tentacles out of the tube when it wants to feed and because of the shape of its tentacles this sea worm is also known as the ‘fan worm’.

Peacock Sea Worms lay their eggs directly into the water and the larvae that hatch out of the eggs first become part of zooplankton. They drift in the sea for a while before settling on the seabed to develop into adult Peacock Sea Worms.