Philippines Photo Gallery: Anilao worms

We took an underwater photography trip to the Philippines in December 2016.

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 They have an operculum to close the hole when they are withdrawn into the tube.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.

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.

Pseudoceros bifurcus

Pseudobiceros flowersi

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Spaghetti worm, Loimia medusa

Last modified 31 October 2024