marine science uh hilo

Marine Science

UH Hilo

Contributors:• Marta deMaintenon (compiler)• Matt Barton• Nancy Chaney• John Coney• Jon Bjornen

Crawling sand grains you say…

Foraminifera!These benthic forams are about 1-2 mm in diameter

Micro!

Staurocladia sp.This is a minute creeping medusa with no oral tentacles. It does have a polyp stage. The central disc is 0.5 mm diameter. The lumps along the tentacles are clusters of nematocysts.

CNIDARIA ELEUTHERIIDAEHYDROZOA- HYDROIDA

Convoluta sp.This small worm was about 1 mm long, but they get larger. The color pattern seen here and the triple points on the tail are typical; its green coloration may be due to symbionts but this is unknown.

ACOELOMORPHA

Acoel flatwormThis small worm was about 4 mm long. They are fast but essentially featureless; this one has been contained in a water drop to be photographed. The round end is the front.

ACOELOMORPHA

Unknown roundwormThis small worm was about 8 mm long.

NEMATODA

Paraplanocera oligoglena (Schmarda, 1859)

Size to 70 mm; nocturnal. These are more circular than bilateral, with a pair of nuchal tentacles in the middle of the dorsal surface and eyespots in clusters at the tentacle bases. The yellow areas are the uterus. Eats micromolluscs.

Platyhelminthes Polycladida - Acotylea Planoceridae

Pseudoceros ferrugineus Hyman, 1959 – Fuschia flatworm.

size to 50 mm; nocturnal. Note the clusters of eyespots on and centrally behind the pseudotentacles. This one is about 20 mm long.

Platyhelminthes Polycladida - Cotylea Pseudocerotidae

Pseudoceros paralaticlavus Newman & Cannon, 1994 – Gold rim flatworm. May be just a color form of P. jebborum.

size to 40 mm; nocturnal. Note the clusters of eyespots around the margin and centrally behind the pseudotentacles. This one is about 15 mm long.

Platyhelminthes Polycladida - Cotylea Pseudocerotidae

Pseudoceros c.f. dimidiatus von Graff, 1893 – Divided flatworm. Size to 65 mm; day active. These are toxic, and have been found to contain tetrodotoxin.

Platyhelminthes Polycladida - Cotylea Pseudocerotidae

Photo by John Coney

Pseudobiceros hymanae Newman & Cannon, 1997 – Hyman’s flatworm. Size to 75 mm; nocturnal.

Platyhelminthes Polycladida - Cotylea Pseudocerotidae

Photo by John Coney

Unknown annelid?This small worm was about 6 mm long; it might be a nematode.

ANNELIDA

Eurythoe complanata (Pallas, 1766) – Green fire worm

size to 24 cm; Hoover doesn’t do these much justice. You can identify this species by the iridescent grey to greenish or pink color and shape of the caruncle. They are very common under rocks.

Annelida Polychaeta Amphinomidae

caruncle

Pherecardia striata (Kinberg, 1857) – Lined fire worm

size to 20 cm; This is the more active and aggressively voracious of the large local fire worms. The body is lined and the head has a large fuzzy caruncle.

Annelida Polychaeta Amphinomidae

Photo by John Coney

Syllid sp.

This small polychaete, about 1.5 cm long, was found in algae. Syllids usually have long articulated tentacles and cirri and two pairs of eyes. They’re very common and diverse but not large.

Annelida Polychaeta Syllidae

Spionid sp. This small polychaete is about 7 mm long. Spionids are diverse,

with varying habits and typically have a set of very long, grooved palps on the head.

Annelida Polychaeta Spionidae?

Iphione muricata (Savigny, 1818)

The spiny scale worm is typically tan or orange and up to about 50 mm long. The back is covered with 13 pairs of overlapping scales. The front can be recognized by the longer tentacles. Found subtidally, under rocks

Annelida Polychaeta Polynoidae

Upper Photo by J. Coney

Chaetopterid sp.

This small tube worm (body about 5 mm long) was found by shaking rubble. It is sedentary and builds tubes of sand and mucus (which this one was unhappily picked out of). They have a pair of long tentacle-like palps and 3 distinct body regions.

Annelida Polychaeta Chaetopteridae

Sabellastarte spectabilis (Grube, 1878)

This large species uses its fan for feeding and respiration. The worm is up to 8 cm in length, and is found in shallow water to ~30m

Annelida Polychaeta Sabellidae

Photo by J. Coney

Spirobranchus giganteus (Grube, 1862)

Despite it’s name, the visible feeding structures in this species are small, only a couple cm long; the entire animal is about 4 cm long. They vary in color and each has 2 spiral fans.

Annelida Polychaeta Serpulidae

Photos by J. Coney

Loimia medusa (Savigny, 1818)

A crown of long bluish-white feeding tentacles are all that is typically seen of this species, though the worm itself can be up to 30cm long. Lanice conchilega is indistinguishable, but less common.

Annelida Polychaeta Terebellidae

Photo by J. Coney

Echiurid sp.

Echiurids are strange infaunal worms with highly elastic non-retractable probosces used in feeding. This one is about 5 cm long. Although annelids are segmented, the segmentation is lost; so body shape is up to the worm.

Annelida Echiuridae