Northwest Dive Club

I found this worm at the base of some eel grass on a night dive at Redondo. Have looked through my Marine Life of the Pacific and haven't found an exact match. Is it some type of spaghetti worm?

I can't help with a ID but its a very interesting find. Nice pics of whatever it is!

Hi David,

Your worm does appear to be a terebellid (aka spaghetti worm) but it doesn't look quite right for the most commonly seen local terebellid Thelepus crispus. I didn't have much luck but if you do a really persistant image search on Google or Bing you could get lucky.

It's pretty unusual to see such a worm out of its tube since an unprotected animal usually gets eaten very quickly. They're also not easily identified (at least casually) in this state since most photo I.D. sources show them in their tube.

Given that you found it in a sandy/eel grass area one possibility is Pista pacifica; did you see any tubes in the area that stick out of the sand with a 90 degree bend and a frilly or ragged opening?

Speculatively yours,

Alex

It is a terebellid. It's curled up so the ventral side is showing. I won't venture a guess as to the genus without seeing the dorsal side but it's neither Thelepus or Pista.