Other animals
Identity card
Channel, North Sea, Atlantic and Mediterranean.
Benthic species that lives in strong currents.
Between 30 and 60 cm. 15 cm diameter for the plume.
Suspension-feeding microphage, phytoplankton and zooplankton, organic particles.
The tube in which this tubicolous annelid worm lives is formed of mucus produced by the animal and mud.
The spirograph lives in this tube but can come out of it.
The double plume of filaments extends and retracts into the tube at the slightest sign of danger. This plume acts as external gills but also traps particles suspended in the water, which the worm feeds on.
Source : ADER Denis, DUMAS Jacques, LE BRIS Sylvain in : DORIS, 07/12/2021 : Sabella spallanzanii (Gmelin, 1791), https://doris.ffessm.fr/ref/specie/403
Photo : Dugornay Olivier (2018). Spirographe (Sabella spallanzanii) rétracté dans son tube. Ifremer. https://image.ifremer.fr/data/00769/88111/
Mankind and shores
The Ocean Mag
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