Dalgety Bay - ann(elid)us mirabilis

Worms, worms, worms! I think I do, on balance, still think earthworms are tedious. Once you get to the seaside though, everything changes! Marine worms are a varied and very attractive lot.

An amazing brief visit to the intertidal yesterday produced a nice small handful of easy species (edible crab, overflying mute swan), but the evening session was more exciting with 4 out of 4 species being lifers.

It was interesting to put the scaleworm Harmothoe imbricata (big!) with its relative Lepidonotus squamatus. From the books it's not always apparent what different animals they are. The Harmothoe is a magnificent beast as you can see below. Psamathe fusca I thought was going to be something sort of ordinary from the ragworm stable, but once under the lens it revealed its beauty, particularly in its colours as the green and pink resolved with closer inspection.

The worm that broke the mould was a nemertean which I briefly tried to ID as a terrestrial flatworm - it was near the top of the beach. Once it became apparent it wasn't, though, the marine books both held sufficient keys (I hope) to nail it as Cerebratulus fuscus. It was interesting to watch it submerged in sea water. I didn't like this group much either to begin with but they are growing on me, partly because of watching them in action.

All will be returned to the sea today after their brief visit ashore. 

Even the seaweed was julaceous today...

Cerebratulus fuscus

Scaleworms - for, um, scale

Psamathe fusca

Ceramium virgatum on a kelp stipe

Numbers:

355		cnidarian	Actinia equina	Beadlet anemone
356	*	echinoderm	Amphipholis squamata	Small Brittlestar
357		fungus	Chaetosphaerella phaeostroma	A pyrenomycete
358		mollusc	Littorina littorea	Common Periwinkle
359		fungus	Pleospora herbarum	A fungus
360	*	diptera	Geomyza tripunctata	An opomyzid fly
361		mollusc	Trochulus (Trochulus) hispidus	Hairy Snail
362		mollusc	Cornu aspersum	Common Garden Snail
363		dermaptera	Forficula auricularia	Common Earwig
364		fungus	Melanomma pulvis-pyrius	A pyrenomycete
365	*	collembola	lepidocyrtus cyaneus	A springtail
366		crustacean	Cancer pagurus	Edible crab
367		bird	Cygnus olor	Mute Swan
368		annelid	Spirobranchus triqueter	An annelid worm
369		fish	Lipophrys pholis	Shanny
370	*	annelid	Psamathe fusca	A ragworm
371	*	annelid	Harmothoe imbricata	A scale worm
372	*	invert-other	Cerebratulus fuscus	A nemertine worm
373	*	alga	Ceramium virgatum	A seaweed