#bonelliidae

[polychaete-of-the-day]

Today's polychaete is Bonellia viridis. These things are wild! The creature you see is the female, and she's green because of a toxin on her skin. The larvae are completely sexless when they drift around in the water, but if a larva lands on her, the toxin signals it to become a male. The female then slurps it up and the male ends up living inside her!

Photos by Dennis Rabeling & Sylvain Le Bris

[animalids]

Green spoon worm (Bonellia viridis)

Photo by Ron Greer

[polychaete-of-the-day]

Polychaete of the day is the eldritch spoonworm, Amalosoma eddystonense, doing... whatever the heck spoonworms do?

Photos by Cathy Hollingdale (two separate observations, 1 and 2)

[animalids]

Green spoon worm (Metabonellia haswelli)

Photo by John Eichler