About: Bobbit Worm   Sponge Permalink

An Entity of Type : owl:Thing, within Data Space : 134.155.108.49:8890 associated with source dataset(s)

The Bobbit worm (Eunice aphroditois), is a species of aquatic predatory polychaete dwelling at the ocean floor. This organism buries its long body into an ocean bed composed of gravel, mud, or corals, where it waits patiently for a stimulus to one of its five antennae, attacking when it senses prey. Armed with sharp teeth, it is known to attack with such speeds, its prey is sometimes sliced in half. Although the worm hunts for food, it is omnivorous. The bobbit worm is found in warmer oceans around the world, including the Indo-Pacific and Atlantic Ocean.

AttributesValues
rdfs:label
  • Bobbit Worm
rdfs:comment
  • The Bobbit worm (Eunice aphroditois), is a species of aquatic predatory polychaete dwelling at the ocean floor. This organism buries its long body into an ocean bed composed of gravel, mud, or corals, where it waits patiently for a stimulus to one of its five antennae, attacking when it senses prey. Armed with sharp teeth, it is known to attack with such speeds, its prey is sometimes sliced in half. Although the worm hunts for food, it is omnivorous. The bobbit worm is found in warmer oceans around the world, including the Indo-Pacific and Atlantic Ocean.
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Kingdom
Name
  • Bobbit Worm
Species
  • Eunice aphroditois
Genus
Class
Family
Order
Phylum
Location
  • Indo-Pacific and Atlantic Ocean
abstract
  • The Bobbit worm (Eunice aphroditois), is a species of aquatic predatory polychaete dwelling at the ocean floor. This organism buries its long body into an ocean bed composed of gravel, mud, or corals, where it waits patiently for a stimulus to one of its five antennae, attacking when it senses prey. Armed with sharp teeth, it is known to attack with such speeds, its prey is sometimes sliced in half. Although the worm hunts for food, it is omnivorous. According to Luis F. Carrera-Parra and Sergio I. Salazar-Vallejo, ecologists specializing in annelid polychaetes at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur in Campeche, Mexico, eunicids inject "... 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". They further state, unlike a different family of worms, the fireworms, which have harpoon-shaped chaetae (bristles) that release a toxin that can cause severe skin irritation, bobbit worm specimens "do not have abundant chaetae and their chaetae are not used for defensive purposes, but for improving traction for crawling over the sediment or inside their galleries or tubes". Little is known about the sexual habits and lifespan of this worm, but researchers hypothesize that sexual reproduction occurs at an early stage, maybe even when the worm is about 100 mm (3.9 in) in length; this is very early, considering these worms can grow to sizes of nearly 3 m (9.8 ft) in some cases (although most observations point to a much lower average length of 1 m (3 ft 3 in) and an average of 25 mm (0.98 in) in diameter). A long lifespan may very well explain the size of these creatures. The bobbit worm is found in warmer oceans around the world, including the Indo-Pacific and Atlantic Ocean.
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