Polychaete for Leslie

[ptychoptera]

Care to help out this novice annelidologist with another ID?

 

[LeslieH]

Polychaetologist, please! Otherwise you include oligochaetes and I don't touch those except to push them out of my samples.

Family Amphinomidae, Pherecardia striata, AKA the striped or lined fireworm. These are the fireworms that help protect corals from crown-of-thorns starfish. Harlequin shrimp first attack the COTs and create openings into their bodies; Pherecardia then crawl into the bodies & eat the stars from the inside.

 

[ptychoptera]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11251819#post11251819 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LeslieH
Polychaetologist, please! Otherwise you include oligochaetes and I don't touch those except to push them out of my samples.

Family Amphinomidae, Pherecardia striata, AKA the striped or lined fireworm. These are the fireworms that help protect corals from crown-of-thorns starfish. Harlequin shrimp first attack the COTs and create openings into their bodies; Pherecardia then crawl into the bodies & eat the stars from the inside.

Fascinating stuff. Are they obligate echinodermavores or just opportunistic in that regard?

 

[LeslieH]

Certainly not obligate as they'll eat a variety of food & readily scavenge. On the other hand, I don't know that any of the other big fireworms have the same behavior. So definitely a very interesting animal.

 

[pagojoe]

Hmmm.... "i" instead of "a" ? echinodermivores? echinodermativores? (vermivore, molluscivore, piscivore, carnivore, omnivore, etc.)

 

[ptychoptera]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11254977#post11254977 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pagojoe
Hmmm.... "i" instead of "a" ? echinodermivores? echinodermativores? (vermivore, molluscivore, piscivore, carnivore, omnivore, etc.)

Thanks for catching that... I'm going to write it 100 times on my blackboard now... ... ... it's the only way I'll learn my lesson.