Luzon Island, Philippines
This is a close shot of a worm colony, which normally consists of dozens of similar rigid tubes sheltering serpulid worms. The worms use their exposed tentacles to catch drifting bits of food. They are extremely sensitive to changes in light and will withdraw completely within a split second if disturbed. The tubes are small, with an inner diameter of a pencil lead, and are usually found in shaded areas underneath coral heads, out of direct sunlight.
Jeffrey N. Jeffords (photographer; copyright holder; identification)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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To cite this page: Jeffords, J.2004. "tubes.jpg" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed December 11, 2024 at https://animaldiversity.org/collections/contributors/jeffrey_jeffords/misc.inverts/tubes/
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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Grants DRL 0089283, DRL 0628151, DUE 0633095, DRL 0918590, and DUE 1122742. Additional support has come from the Marisla Foundation, UM College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, Museum of Zoology, and Information and Technology Services.
The ADW Team gratefully acknowledges their support.