This polychaete found in tropical Sabah water in Malaysia. They create silly membrane to protect them. Found them binding seagrass leaf together and feed on seagrass.
key to many polychaete identification is on the morphology of the head, parapodia and chaetal arrangements. I'm afraid we'll need to use a stereo microscope before we can give any answers.
Well, we definitely need a better image, especially of the head, but it could be a nereidid polychaete. Platynereis bicanaliculata from California do exactly what you describe; they bind sea grasses together with mucus. Sometimes the entire area containing the sea grass Phyllospadix is bound up in the mucus and contains thousands of Platynereis.
Hi Tzuen,
The image looks like a nereidid to me. I can zoom in on the first image and the head appears to have 4 eyes and biarticulate palps which are characteristic of that family. As Ranan and Peter have already mentioned, you will need to examine the chaetae and head under a microscope to identify it a genus and species. Also important for identifying nereididae is the jaw structure and the arrangement of paragnaths on the pharynx. You may have to dissect out the pharynx on preserved specimens to see this or relaxing the worms with Epsom salt or magnesium chloride may cause them to evert their pharynx. One reference I found doing a quick Google Scholar search that might be useful to you is:
Glasby, Christopher J; Mogi, Motoyoshi and Takahashi, Kei-ichi. Occurrence of the polychaete Namalycastis hawaiiensis Johnson, 1903 (Nereididae: Namanereidinae) in Pandanus Leaf Axils on Palau, West Pacific [online]. Beagle: Records of the Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, The, Vol. 19, Dec 2003: 97-99.
My first impression was also family Nereididae because it looks like it has biarticulate palps. However, Nereididae have biramous parapodia, which I cannot see in the picture. But this might be just because details are impossible to discern on the pictures. I also recommend taking pictures that show more details of the head, the parapodia, and the chaetae.
@David Thanks alot for the information. Will look into the details and try to observe their jaws.
@Michael. Noted. Trying find better SLR camera to take more picture of them. Will try under microscope too
@S.Y. Gagaev. Thanks. Will look into them.
I think it is a Nereididae, but better pictures of head and parapodia are necessary to see more details.
The new pictures are much better. Family Nereididae. Identifying genus and species is more complicated as you have to look at microscopic structures, e.g. the chaetae.
I agree Michael Reuscher under family Nereididae it maybe Pesudoneries sp.
Next step is look the proboscis and their structures, dorsal and ventral. If you see little dark cones or bars, you are in a good way for identifying genus.
@Michael @Sekar Veeramuthu @ Gagaev @ Pedro
Noted. Thanks for all the useful information. Will look into those morphology characteristic.
Thanks @ Victor, ya there is another species under Platynereis in America making nest among seagrass leaf as well.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Phytochemistry
- Extracts