Sabellaria spinulosa
| Sabellaria spinulosa | |
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| Sabellaria spinulosa figure 1 | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Annelida |
| Class: | Polychaeta |
| Subclass: | Palpata |
| Order: | Canalipalpata |
| Suborder: | Sabellida |
| Family: | Sabellariidae |
| Genus: | Sabellaria |
| Species: | S. spinulosa |
| Binomial name | |
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Sabellaria spinulosa Leuckart, 1849 |
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| Synonyms | |
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Sabellaria spinulosa is a species of marine polychaete worm in the family Sabellariidae, commonly known as the Ross worm. It lives in a tube built of sand, gravel and pieces of shell.
S. spinulosa lives in a tube made of shell fragments and coarse sand cemented together with mucus. The tube has a circular cross section and can be closed by an operculum formed by bristles growing on the head of the worm. There are several thoracic segments and the abdomen has many segments that have hooked bristles on raised lobes. The worm's distinguishing features include three thoracic segments with paired chaetal sheaths, pointed opercular chaetae and an outer layer of serrated chaetae.
S. spinulosa is found round the coasts of the British Isles, in the sublittoral zone and occasionally in the intertidal zone. It is also found in other regions of the north east Atlantic Ocean south to Portugal and the Mediterranean Sea.
S. spinulosa is a filter feeder, extending its feeding tentacles to catch plankton and detritus that are brought within its reach by the current. Individual worms are either male or female. In the English Channel, spawning mostly takes place between January and March and the larvae became part of the zooplankton. Development of the larvae take 4 to 8 weeks before they settle and undergo metamorphosis and start building tubes. The worms live for 2 to 5 years, or possibly for as long as 9 years.
The worms are very tolerant of adverse conditions such as polluted water, low salinity or low oxygen levels. They favour localities where currents or waves churn up sand but they need a hard substrate to get established. The larvae are strongly attracted to settle in areas where adults are already living or other larvae have settled, but if, after 2 months, the larvae have not found such a place, they settle independently. Shells of the scallop Pecten maximus also attracted larvae to a lesser extent. Larvae of S. alveolata were attracted to settle near adult S. spinulosa but not vice versa.
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