When I think of strings, I think of the spaghetti worm. This worm lives in mucus tubes surrounded by rocks or sand generally in the intertidal areas and uses its thin white tentacles to gather food. The tentacles for a worm this small would probably be a little under a foot in length, while a worm with a body length of a foot will have tentacles about 3 feet in length. The tentacles themselves have a little groove filled with cilia (hair-like structures), that are used to move food particle from the sea floor to the mouth.
As an added bonus, you can also see a string of nudibranch eggs (the thick white wavy line to the right of the worm).
18 comments:
Great photo, I don't I have ever seen a spaghetti worm.
Cece
Wow, thanks for sharing I have never seen a spaghetti worm.
Great idea for this week's theme.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Amanda
http://www.amandasweeklyzen.com/2008/09/photohunters-strings.html
That is cool. I've never seen or even heard of that worm. And I love your motto (spineless is splendid)!! :)
Happy weekend!
YESSSSsss!!! Awesome take on the them. I love it! Thanks for visiting!
A spaghetti worm...how fascinating!
I just discovered nudibranchs a couple of months ago when National Geographic sent their daily photo emails out and I spotted them in one of the desktop wallpaper sets. They are SO beautiful.
It's nice to see such an unusual take on the "strings" theme today...thanks!
Never seen this creature before, thanks for sharing out! :D
Cool. The worm is great. And I really like the string of eggs. I'm always surprised how some creatures produce eggs that are in clumps while some are in strings. I wonder if there is a specific advantage to being in a string.
Baker
As always thanks for dropping by and the kind comments.)
Very creative choice for the theme. I love the variety of stringy subjects in this week's photo hunt.
Thanks for stopping by the creek - may your weekend be delightful.
This is fascinating! Thank you for the introduction to a world that I know nothing about.
I don't think I've ever seen spaghetti worm either. Definitely a unique take on the theme! :)
Wonderful shot Brine Queen. Truly a wonder of the deep! I've never seen a beetle like Stumpy before. What a beauty!
With a tentacle "under a foot in length", that doesn't sound that small to me. For if you hadn't told us, would have thought something called a worm would be quite a bit smaller!
Gosh this is fascinating!
Did you ever read any of Gerald Durrell's books? I have all of them, and you remind me of him. :)
oh wow! this is one of the few unique takes on the theme! well done!
Because of living on Sanibel Island, my clothes are salt stained too. :-) You should visit.
Interesting photo!
I'm worried that if I eat spaghetti next time, I will think of worms :O
Very interesting! I've never seen one like that before.
wow, what an interesting blog you have!!!
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