APHOTOMARINE

An educational resource dedicated mainly to the photography
and diversity of marine life that can be found in coastal waters
and intertidal areas of Great Britain and Ireland by David Fenwick.

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Nemertean or ribbon worm
Nemertean (Saltash 13.09.22)
- yellow coiled worm with red eye spots 1

Nemertean or ribbon worm
Nemertean (Saltash 13.09.22)
- yellow coiled worm with red eye spots 2

Nemertean or ribbon worm
Nemertean (Saltash 13.09.22)
- yellow coiled worm with red eye spots 3

Nemertean or ribbon worm
Nemertean (Saltash 13.09.22)
- yellow coiled worm close-up 1

Nemertean or ribbon worm
Nemertean (Saltash 13.09.22)
- close-up of head 1

Nemertean or ribbon worm
Nemertean (Saltash 13.09.22)
- close-up of head 2

Nemertean or ribbon worm
Nemertean (Saltash 13.09.22)
- close-up of head 3

Nemertean or ribbon worm
Nemertean (Saltash 13.09.22)
- close-up of tail 1

Nemertean or ribbon worm
Nemertean (Saltash 13.09.22)
- with 0.1mm division rule 1

Nemertean or ribbon worm
Nemertean (Saltash 13.09.22)
- habitat / location 1

Nemertean or ribbon worm
Nemertean (Saltash 13.09.22)
- habitat / location 2

The specimen above is a small nemertean and was found on Saw Wrack, Fucus serratus, between solitary and colonial tunicates, hydrozoans, bryozoans and kamptozoans. The specimen was found on a low spring tide on the River Tamar at Ashtorre Rock, Saltash, Cornwall, SX4338058757. 13.09.22.

This is an area of reasonably high salinity. Other nemerteans from this site include Lineus viridis, Siphonenteron bilineatum, Tetrastemma melanocephalum, Tetrastemma vermiculus, Oerstedia dorsalis, Psammamphiporus elongatus, Cephalothrix ruffifrons and Cephalothrix simula.

I am unsure if this is an entire worm, or a tail of a worm that is developing a new head. The worm is certainly coiled and yellow, which is not a common colour among nemerteans. The reason I thing it might have a developing head is because of what I'm calling its red eye spots, two of which are in the right situation to be eyes, but the worm also has these red spots centrally and just behing the eye spots, the spots might indicate a nervous system is developing but I cannot be sure and an expert opinion has been sought. One of the issues with nemertens is that some have been inaccurately described, or have been described with limited accuracy because species have been described from a very limited number of specimens. There is a lot of scope for finding new nemerteans even in the UK so it is important to photographically record everything that might be a little different.

The main objective of this website is in furthering environmental awareness and education through the medium of photography. To increase awareness and access to the wildlife of the region and help

people find and identify it. Sometimes the difference between species is obvious but many species can only be determined by observing microscopic characteristics that are specific to any one species.