Christmas-tree worms, Spirobranchus giganteusWe took an underwater photography trip to the Philippines in December 2016 and returned in November 2024.
Christmas-tree worms are tube-building polychaete worms. Each animal has two feeding and respiratory spirals. They do not move outside their tubes. They have an operculum to close the hole when they are withdrawn into the tube.
Christmas-tree worms, Spirobranchus giganteus
Sabellid fan worms do not have an operculum. They are annelid worms, filter feeders with no buccal organ. They have arms of feathery feeding tentacles. They live in parchment-like tubes made of particles from their environment (sand, shell fragments) cemeted together with mucus.
White Sabellid, Sabella sp.
Magnificent tube worm, Protula magnifca
Fan worms, Sabellastarte indica
Flatworms (platyhelminths) are bilateral unsegmented soft-bodied invertebrates. They have no body cavity and no specialized circulatory or respiratory organs. Oxygen and nutrients pass through their bodies by diffusion. Their digestive cavity has only one opening used for both ingestion and egestion.
Racing stripe flatworm, Pseudoceros bifurcus
Laing Island flatworm, Pseudoceros laingensis
Linda's flatworm, Pseudoceros lindae
Flowers' flatworm, Pseudobiceros flowersi
Pseudoceros sp.
Acanthozoon sp.
Spaghetti worms are marine polychaete worms that live in burrows.
Spaghetti worm, Loimia medusa
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Last modified 9 December 2024