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The newly described tubeworm Spirobranchus akitsushima was discovered near Kamakura and Tsurugizaki on the Yokohama coast in Sagami Bay, Japan.
The worm species settles on the intertidal rocky coast on concrete blocks and wall steps, on vertical natural rocks, on and under natural rocks and in rock pools, sometimes at a density of more than 100 specimens per cm².
The animals thereby form an intertidal belt that extends horizontally for more than 10 metres along the coast of Yokohama, so in the intertidal zone of Jogashima.
Brief description:
The tubes of the worms are white, blue or purple inside and out. the outer tube diameter is 2.2mm to 3.0 mm.
Specimens from Kamakura and Hayama had a blunt flap over the tube mouth, specimens from Sagami Bay and Yokohama had a sharp flap over the tube opening.
Male tube worms could be easily distinguished by a creamy white abdomen filled with sperm, females with orange to pale orange abdomen when filled with eggs.
The species name of the new tubeworm species refers to "Akitsushima", another name of Japan in the Nara era about 1,300 years ago, as recorded in Kojiki
(Records of Ancient Affairs) and Nihon Shoki (Chronicle of Japan).
Besides recent ones, subfossil tube assemblages were also present.
Source:
Nishi E, Abe H, Tanaka K, Jimi N, Kupriyanova EK (2022)
A new species of the Spirobranchus kraussii complex, S. akitsushima (Annelida, Polychaeta, Serpulidae), from the rocky intertidal zone of Japan. ZooKeys 1100: 1-28.
https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1100.79569
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
The worm species settles on the intertidal rocky coast on concrete blocks and wall steps, on vertical natural rocks, on and under natural rocks and in rock pools, sometimes at a density of more than 100 specimens per cm².
The animals thereby form an intertidal belt that extends horizontally for more than 10 metres along the coast of Yokohama, so in the intertidal zone of Jogashima.
Brief description:
The tubes of the worms are white, blue or purple inside and out. the outer tube diameter is 2.2mm to 3.0 mm.
Specimens from Kamakura and Hayama had a blunt flap over the tube mouth, specimens from Sagami Bay and Yokohama had a sharp flap over the tube opening.
Male tube worms could be easily distinguished by a creamy white abdomen filled with sperm, females with orange to pale orange abdomen when filled with eggs.
The species name of the new tubeworm species refers to "Akitsushima", another name of Japan in the Nara era about 1,300 years ago, as recorded in Kojiki
(Records of Ancient Affairs) and Nihon Shoki (Chronicle of Japan).
Besides recent ones, subfossil tube assemblages were also present.
Source:
Nishi E, Abe H, Tanaka K, Jimi N, Kupriyanova EK (2022)
A new species of the Spirobranchus kraussii complex, S. akitsushima (Annelida, Polychaeta, Serpulidae), from the rocky intertidal zone of Japan. ZooKeys 1100: 1-28.
https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1100.79569
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
