Peer Aquatic Biology
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Vermetid worm-snails are sessile and irregularly coiled marine molluscs found in warmer inshore and coral reef environments and exposed to high predation pressure from fish.
Often hidden, some of them have developed stable shells or long columellar muscles that allow them to quickly retreat into better protected parts of the shell tube, and most have variously developed opercula that protect and close the shell opening like a trap door.
Members of the genus Thylacodes (formerly: Serpulorbis) lack such opercular protection.
The species in this genus often have a polychromatic head-to-toe coloration, and some have an aposematic coloration that probably targets fish predators
Cayo refulgens is a worm snail discovered in 2023 in the Florida Keys that underwent a parallel evolution of the non-operculate marine worm snail genera Thylacodes, so they also lack a tube-closing operculum (trapdoor).
The largest length of the worm shells was 0.9 - 1.3 cm, with the shell anchored deep in the substrate for its own protection.
Etymology:
The generic name “Cayo” is the Spanish term for a small flat island in the Caribbean and surrounding regions, corresponding to “key” in Florida, “cay” in the Bahamas and “caye” or “cay” in Belize.
Here, the term refers to the locations of the four currently known species of this genus, Looe Key in the barrier reef of the Florida Keys and Carrie Bow Cay in the Belizean reef.
Etymology:
The species name “refulgens” means “shining back” or, figuratively, “standing out”.
Literature reference:
Bieler R, Collins TM, Golding R, Granados-Cifuentes C, Healy JM, Rawlings TA, Sierwald P. 2023. Replacing
mechanical protection with colorful faces–twice: parallel evolution of the non-operculate marine worm-snail genera Thylacodes (Guettard,
1770) and Cayo n. gen. (Gastropoda: Vermetidae). PeerJ 11:e15854 http://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15854
CC BY 4.0, open access
Often hidden, some of them have developed stable shells or long columellar muscles that allow them to quickly retreat into better protected parts of the shell tube, and most have variously developed opercula that protect and close the shell opening like a trap door.
Members of the genus Thylacodes (formerly: Serpulorbis) lack such opercular protection.
The species in this genus often have a polychromatic head-to-toe coloration, and some have an aposematic coloration that probably targets fish predators
Cayo refulgens is a worm snail discovered in 2023 in the Florida Keys that underwent a parallel evolution of the non-operculate marine worm snail genera Thylacodes, so they also lack a tube-closing operculum (trapdoor).
The largest length of the worm shells was 0.9 - 1.3 cm, with the shell anchored deep in the substrate for its own protection.
Etymology:
The generic name “Cayo” is the Spanish term for a small flat island in the Caribbean and surrounding regions, corresponding to “key” in Florida, “cay” in the Bahamas and “caye” or “cay” in Belize.
Here, the term refers to the locations of the four currently known species of this genus, Looe Key in the barrier reef of the Florida Keys and Carrie Bow Cay in the Belizean reef.
Etymology:
The species name “refulgens” means “shining back” or, figuratively, “standing out”.
Literature reference:
Bieler R, Collins TM, Golding R, Granados-Cifuentes C, Healy JM, Rawlings TA, Sierwald P. 2023. Replacing
mechanical protection with colorful faces–twice: parallel evolution of the non-operculate marine worm-snail genera Thylacodes (Guettard,
1770) and Cayo n. gen. (Gastropoda: Vermetidae). PeerJ 11:e15854 http://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15854
CC BY 4.0, open access
