Creature Feature – Bobbit Worm
Continuing with spooky season, in honour of Halloween, this week’s featured creature is the Bobbit worm! Whilst there may not be any mummies or zombies buried under the seafloor, there are buried worms! These benthic (deep ocean) bristle worms are ambush predators who have been lurking in the sand for over 20 million years.
Taxonomy
Scientific Name: Eunice aphroditois
Phylum: Annelida
Order: Eunicida
Family: Eunicidae
Genus: Eunice
Bobbit Worm Fact File
Size: Individuals can range from < 10cm in length to > 3m long!
Distribution: They can be found at the bottom of tropic and subtropic bodies of water in the Indo-Pacific and have been found in Bali, New Guinea, the Philippines, Australia, Fiji, and Indonesia
Diet: This species eats a wide variety of food, from various fish species, but also algae, coral, and decaying matter
Behaviour: Ambush predators, they burrow into the sand and then shoot out with razor sharp jaws capable of slicing fish in half. Like most of the class Polychaeta (marine worms), bobbit worms are sexually-reproducing organisms that lack external reproductive organs – they reproduce by spawning
IUCN Status: Not Evaluated. Unfortunately, little is known about the conservation status of this species
