Chaetopterus

Chaetopterus or the parchment worm or parchment tube worm is a genus of marine polychaete worm that lives in a tube it constructs in sediments or attaches to a rocky or coral reef substrate.[1][2][3] The common name arises from the parchment-like appearance of the tubes that house these worms.[3] Parchment tube worms are filter feeders and spend their adult lives in their tubes, unless the tube is damaged or destroyed. They are planktonic in their juvenile forms, as is typical for polychaete annelids. Species include the recently discovered deep water Chaetopterus pugaporcinus and the well-studied Chaetopterus variopedatus.

Chaetopterus
Chaetopterus sp.
Photo of Chaetopterus variopedatus (Smaller Lanice conchilega in front)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Annelida
Class:
Polychaeta
Order:
Canalipalpata
Family:
Chaetopteridae
Genus:
Chaetopterus

Cuvier, 1827

Housing tubes

The tubes the worms live in are either attached to rocks, or, more commonly, buried in sandy bottoms in shallow waters. The worm has spines along its body segments that are modified for tunneling into the sandy substrate to create the u-shaped tube within which it lives.[4] The tubes are upright u-shaped tunnels lined with mucous, then the parchment tube, with the worm living inside the parchment tube. Each parchment tube ends with a chimney of parchment that juts above the substrate. The tubes can be as long as 85 centimeters and up to 4 centimeters in diameter at the widest portion in the buried central part of the tube. The chimneys may be wider or much narrower than the rest of the tube.[5]

Worm morphology

The worms are unique among the polychaete worms in the highly derived parapodia of the mid-segments of its body that are used in its specialized filter feeding regime.[3] The worm's parapodia are modified into the shape of fans and used to create suction and pump water through the worm's parchment living tube.[3] The morphology of the structures are used in identifying species.[4] The worm feeds by using modified structures on its midbody segments that create mucus nets to trap food passed through the net.[6] A flow of water containing plankton and organic debris is created by "circular flaps" on three segments that create suction that draws water through the living tube.[6]

Bioluminescence

Members of the genus have no organs for detecting light and live their entire adult lives in their buried tubes.[6] In spite of this, known members of the genera exhibit strong bioluminescence.[4] When the worm is disturbed in its home it moves to the end of the tube away from the disturbance and near the disturbance it emits its feeding mucus with crystals that exhibit blue luminescence.[7]

Commensal animals

Two species of filter-feeding crustaceans from different families may make their homes in the Chaetopterus tube, Polyonyx gibbesi (family Porcellanidae) and Pinnixa chaetopterana (family Pinnotheridae) ;[5][8] while a third species, Tumidotheres maculatus is known to sometimes inhabit the tubes.[6] Polyonyx and Pinnixa are almost always present in the tubes, generally as a pair of crabs, and both species may inhabit the tubes at the same time.[5] However, breeding pairs of either species do not share the tubes with adults of the other species.[5] The crustaceans may live most of their lives in the tubes, leaving in the case of disturbance by exiting through the chimneys at either ends or, when the chimneys are too narrow, by biting through the parchment tube.[5] A nudibranch, Tenellia chaetopterana also lives within the tubes of a species of Chaetopterus. It is hypothesised that this nudibranch feeds on the mucus net which Chaetopterus uses to trap its food or on the faeces of Chaetopterus. Tenellia rolleri is another nudibranch with similar flattened morphology which lives in muddy areas with no obvious food source, but abundant Chaetopterus tubes. It is possible that it lives and feeds in a similar manner.[9]

References
  1. Gibson, Robin (2005). Oceanography and marine biology an annual review. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-8493-3597-3.
  2. "Marine Biological Laboratory, MBL :: Marine Organisms:: Marine Organisms Database". Archived from the original on 2008-06-10.
  3. Irvine, Steven Q.; Oleg Chaga; Mark W. Martindale (December 1999). "Larval Ontogenetic Stages of Chaetopterus: Developmental Heterochrony in the Evolution of Chaetopterid Polychaetes". Biological Bulletin. 197 (3): 319–331. doi:10.2307/1542786. JSTOR 1542786. PMID 10630333.
  4. Pleijel, Fredrik; Rouse, Greg W. (2001). Polychaetes. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-850608-2.
  5. Gray, I. E. (June 1961). "Changes in Abundance of the Commensal Crabs of Chaetopterus". Biological Bulletin. 120 (3): 353–359. doi:10.2307/1539537. JSTOR 1539537.
  6. Fox, Richard Wightman; Ruppert, Edward E. (1988). Seashore animals of the Southeast: a guide to common shallow- water invertebrates of the southeastern Atlantic Coast. Columbia, S.C: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0-87249-535-3.
  7. Osamu Shimomura (2006). Bioluminescence: Chemical Principles And Methods. World Scientific Publishing Company. ISBN 981-256-801-8.
  8. Haig J.(1960) The Porcellanidae (Crustacea, Anomura) of the Eastern Pacific. Allan Hancock Pacific Expeditions 24, 1–440.
  9. Ekimova I., Deart Y. & Schepetov D. (2017). Living with a giant parchment tube worm: a description of a new nudibranch species (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia) associated with the annelid Chaetopterus. Marine Biodiversity. DOI 10.1007/s12526-017-0795-z.
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