![]() When I've witnessed a bobbit worm feeding, it was usually on a cardinal fish or a puffer fish. The fish disappeared less than a 1/2 second later, I got very very lucky with this shot.Ĭlose-up showing the claws of the bobbit worm. It doesn't seem to mind being closely approached, if you can get it to stay outĭon't touch it, and don't get grabbed, the claws are very powerful and can injure youīe ready with your shots, because the worm can move very very fast.īobbit worm grabbing a fish. The bobbit worm will often react to a light being shined on it only once or twice, lunging into the air, until it learns there is nothing there Use a good guide who has found them before That is almos 10 feet long! I'm not sure how "stretched out" that is.The ones that I've seen underwater do not appear to be that large, but it is difficult to tell because most of their body is down in their burrow.ĭon't shine your light on the bobbit worm for too long Thanks to Leslie Harris for this infomation.Īccording to Wikepedia, the longest Bobbit worm on record is 299cm. I certainly would not want to give them my bare finger. Their mandibles are so strong, they can chop their prey right in half. Bobbit worms are ambush predators but if they're really hungry they will scavenge for food around the opening to their burrows. They have 1 pair of eyes at the base of the antennae but they may not play a big role in food capture. In the close up the 5 striped filaments are the antennae & palps - these carry the sensory receptors. The big serrated hooked pieces are maxillae. there are 2 types of jaw pieces - 1 pair of mandibles and 4-6 pairs of maxillae. A disturbed bobbit worm will often retract down into the sand for a long period of time. When searching for them underwater, we often wave our lights quickly and avoid shining a light directly on them for more than a second. The 2nd is that the erect worms reminded someone of an unattached penis.īobbit worms don't like bright lights. The 1st - and the one I heard way back when - is that the outstretched jaws resemble scissors. The association of "Bobbit" for Eunice aphroditois has 2 possible origins. Females do not care for larvae or juveniles & they certainly do not feed them. Some species of Marphysa (which are in the same family as the genus Eunice) produce egg cocoons. It consists of the female creating a mucus cocoon for the eggs & keeping it clean or brooding the eggs within her own tube. Only a very few species exhibit parental care which is minimal. There is no such thing as mating/copulation not do males & females come into contact. The eggs & sperm meet, the eggs get fertilized & start developing. Most of them are what we call broadcast spawners which means the males & females spew out eggs & sperm into the water. Here's some facts from Polychaete expert Leslie Harris at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles:įirst off, Polychaetes don't have penises or vaginas. I've also seen them called sand strikers, because of how quickly they appear to strike out of nowhere in the sand.Ī common myth about the Bobbit Worm is that they got their name from the fact that the female worms cuts off the penis of the male worm after mating, and then feeds it to her young. Ask your guide where! (Hint - it's dark, shallow, and there is lots of sand.)īobbit worms are P olychaete worms in the phylum Annelida. Update - 2018 - bobbit worms are plentiful in Anilao, Philippines. Update - June 2009 - many bobbit worms have been seen at Air Prang dive site, Lembeh, Indonesia. It has 5 antennae that house these sensory receptors. The bobbit worm has light and chemical receptors that cause it to lunge at fish when it thinks they are nearby. This worm likes sandy and gravel substrates, that you would find on "muck" dives. Scuba diving sites where the bobbit worm has been seen includes Secret bay in Bali, Indonesia - Police Pier & Nudie Retreat in Lembeh, Indonesia - and Mainit Muck or Basura in Anilao, Phillipines. The bobbit worm, also known as the Eunice worm, can be found in sandy, mucky dive sites in many places of the world. The Bobbit worm, Eunice aphroditois, is a ferocious underwater predator. ![]()
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