Bobbit Worm

Bobbit worms are an aquatic species that usually live in warmer water, but are found in oceans all around the world. They were first described in the Indo-Pacific waters near Sri Lanka. The worm lives under the ocean floor where it buries itself completely under corals, gravel, or mud, except for its head which it leaves sticking out of its hole. Shown below is a map of global bobbit worm distribution. As shown in the figure, they are found mostly in coastal areas in tropical or temperate waters.

Feeding

These worms are omnivorous, meaning they eat both plants and animals. Their diet includes other annelids, crustaceans, mollusks, detritus, and diatoms. In order to catch their prey, they use the five tentacles surrounding their mouth to sense stimuli in the water around them. Once a stimuli is detected, the worm shoots out of its hole and captures the prey with its pharynx, often killing it immediately. The prey is then dragged down into the worm’s burrow and eaten. When attacking, bobbit worms also inject a “narcotizing or killing toxin in their prey animal, such that it can be safely ingested – especially if they are larger than the worm – and then digested through the gut” (Simon).

Reproduction

Bobbit worms are a gonochoristic species, meaning a single organism only has one sex, unlike hermaphroditic species in which a single organism has both male and female sexual characteristics. Bobbit worms are also iteroparous, meaning they experience several reproductive cycles over the course of their life rather than reproducing just once preceding death. When reproducing, their sperm and eggs are released into open water and external fertilization occurs. The longevity of the bobbit worm is largely unknown, but its size and reproductive habits could potentially indicate a long lifespan.

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_7ByiYbCYM

Works Cited

Ayre, James. “Bobbit Worm — Eunice Aphroditois — Giant Super-Aggressive Worm, Attack, Sting, Video,

Etc.” PlanetSave, 1 Aug. 2013, planetsave.com/2013/08/01/bobbit-worm-eunice-aphroditois-

giant-super-aggressive-worm-attack-sting-video-etc/.

Gambi, M. Christina. “Polychaetes of Commercial and Applied Interest in Italy: An Overview.” Jan. 1994,

pp. 593–601.

Polytraits Team 2017. Polytraits: A database on biological traits of polychaetes. LifewatchGreece,

Hellenic Centre for Marine Research. Accessed on 2017-11-19. Available from

http://polytraits.lifewatchgreece.eu

Salazar-Vallejo, Sergio I, et al. “Giant Eunicid Polychaetes (Annelida) in Shallow Tropical and

Temperate Seas.” Revista De Biología Tropical.

Simon, Matt (September 6, 2013). "Absurd Creature of the Week: 10-Foot Bobbit Worm Is the

Ocean's Most Disturbing Predator - Wired Science". Wired.com. Retrieved 2013-09-09.

Uchida, Hiro'omi, et al. “An Extraordinarily Large Specimen of the Polychaete Worm Eunice Aphroditois

(Pallas) (Order Eunicea) from Shirahama, Wakayama, Central Japan.” Kuroshio Biosphere, vol.

5, Mar. 2009, pp. 9–15.

Photos:

http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20m?map=Eunice+aphroditois

https://twitter.com/BBCEarth/status/929273794627293184/photo/1

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/09/160921084602.htm