Northwest Dive Club

Yup. Family Sabellariidae, maybe Neosabellaria cementarium. I can't tell species from just the crown.

Okay, the new standard for screaming will be "like a macho diver confronted with a cute little worm"

Back in August Jan was notified by Gretchen Lambert that the invasive Didemnum finally had a name - D. vexillum - and her paper was in press (http://www.nwdiveclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2043&p=62828&hilit=didemnum#p62828). It's finally out. She did a fantastic job of tracking the tuni...

Fi-lo-dose-sid, e-t-own-e pacific-a :-)) If you wanted to make up a common name Pacific Spotted Paddleworm would be good. I don't use common names for worms too much because most species don't have them or they're just as long as the scientific ones. All too often they're mis-used (like bobbit worm ...

Hey, now this is really cool! I'm sorry I missed it the first time around Dusty. http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h276/DianneOnly/sm_kiss.gif It's one of my favorite critters - the phyllodocid Eteone pacifica. It's on page 136 of Lamb & Hanby as an unidentified phyllodocid. Normally a bottom dw...

Thanks, Dusty. I lost the bookmark, life got hectic .... fortunately Greg showed me the way back .

I hope someday I get a critter named after me, but definitely not via the "Bobbit" route. I wonder if he even knows he's been so honored. It's not in honor of him, it's in honor of HER scissors. :notworthy: And it only refers to a few large species that stand up with their huge jaws exten...

Sounds like polychaete swarmers. Lots of species are attracted to lights at night because the full moon sets off their mating behavior.

Thanks Tim. Definitely a terebellid.

I feel the same way when you start talking cameras! ;-D

Hi there -- Greg Jensen asked me to check this one as he thought it more likely to be a terebellid polychaete. I'm afraid I have to disagree with Sheila & go with Greg. Tamara's pics clearly show a "mane" of long fine tentacles. Sipuncs, phoronids, cnidarians, cukes, and all the other ...

Odd - I know I answered this the other day but the post doesn't show. Well, anyway, Jan is absolutely right. It's a great picture and a real treat for me as I've only seen preserved material of this particular species.

Hmmm, it might be a Bispira. Can you send me a high-res file? I need to check for eyes at the tips of radioles (the pinnate structures that make up the branchial crown). I'm at lharris[at]nhm[dot]org

The first earliest report of lionfish release is when Hurricane Andrew in 1992 destroyed a sea-side aquarium in Florida. 6 lionfish were in the tank and some were seen soon afterwards in the wild. Other sightings are thought to be the result of people releasing their pets once they're too big for th...

Not one of mine unfortunately. I suspect it's a juvenile synaptid holothuroid. Nice try tho' :occasion5:

Hi Dave - being fond of alpheids & curious I called on my friend Art who's a specialist on the group. He felt it was A. bellimanus.

Cool! It's a juvenile scaleworm, family Polynoidae, genus Arctonoe. Adults are known to live on echinoderms. Juveniles have been found on a number of different branchs but this is a new record for my files, thanks. http://www.seaslugforum.net/display.cfm?id=21389 http://www.seaslugforum.net/display....

Nice to see that a worm can fight off a fish! It's a big Glycera species, possibly Glycera americana. Glycerids have 4 sharp pointed jaws at the end of an eversible proboscis (kinda like the inner jaw of "Alien"), some of which are thought to have poison glands. In your picture the partial...

Now this is getting interesting. Being very curious I sent your photo to my friend Don Cadien who has 50 years of experience identifying west coast critters. This is his reply "No idea about the other thing. Not an echiuran, certainly not an Arhynchite which are dark forest green with a very wh...

p. 162 - it's easy to overlook, only 1 species listed for echiura

About the last one.... Lamb & Hanby have the best coverage of polychaetes I've ever seen in a guide book. That said, they still only have less than 1% of what's out there and in some groups a lot of species look alike until you get them under a microscope. The tube Dusty photographed is characte...

Did you look at the echiuroid page? At Arhynchite pugetttensis? A. californicus is similar but larger. (L&H has A. californicus as a synonym of A. pugettensis but some people keep them separate.)

Aphrodita yes but maybe not negligens. That's just the only one listed in L&H but there are several more species to be found in the area. I would leave it as Aphrodita sp.

It's not a Molpadia - texture of the skin is very different. There's something very similar in the polychaete section of Lamb & Hanby called Sphaerodoropsis sp. I'd love to get my hands on that specimen - the appearance & size just seem all wrong to me and suspect it belongs to another phylum.

Sorry it took me so long to find this site again. For some reason I just couldn't connect. Anyway, I'd go with ophiuroid arm rather than polychaete.