''Bispira brunnea'', the social feather duster or cluster duster, is a species of marine bristleworm. They tend to live in groups of individuals, and are common off the Caribbean islands in southeast North America. The feather duster has one crown of various colors, however, the color of the crown seems to be consistent within individual colonies.

Taxonomy

This worm was first described in 1917 by the American zoologist Aaron Louis Treadwell, a specialist in annelids, who gave it the name ''Metalaonome brunnea''. It was later transferred to the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

Bispira ''Bispira'' is a genus of marine bristleworm Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine annelid worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that ...

'', becoming ''Bispira brunnea''. The type locality is somewhere in the Bahamas.

Description

Like other worms in the family

Sabellidae Sabellidae, or feather duster worms, are a family of marine polychaete tube worms characterized by protruding feathery branchiae. Sabellids build tubes out of a tough, parchment-like exudate, strengthened with sand and bits of shell. Unlike the ...

, ''Bispira brunnea'' secretes itself a soft, non-calcareous tube, about in length from which it projects when feeding and into which it can retract. The tube is cemented to a hard surface, such as coral or rock, and white sand grains are cemented to the outside, using secretions from a gland just behind the worm's head. The trunk is segmented and the head bears the mouth, the sensory organs and a crown of

radiole A radiole is a heavily ciliated feather-like tentacle found in highly organized clusters on the crowns of Canalipalpata. Canalipalpata is an order of sessile marine polychaete worms consisting of 31 families (including the Sabellidae, Serpulida ...

s (feather-like tentacles). There are 18 to 28 radioles arranged in two semicircular whorls. This worm tends to grow in colonial groups; the crowns of radioles sway together with movements of the water, and when one is stimulated to retract, the others do likewise. They are sensitive to vibrations in the water and thus difficult to observe. Colours are very variable, but the individuals in each group tend to have similar colourings; brown, orange, purple or banded, and often darker in the centre.

Distribution and habitat

This worm is found throughout the Caribbean region and around the Bahamas and is often common. The tubes grow on rocks, corals and sandy sediment, under overhangs and in crevices, at depths down to about . They prefer areas with vigorous water movement where there is plenty of suspended organic material and

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a crucia ...

Ecology

''Bispira brunnea'' feeds on plankton which are filtered from the water by the radioles. Lubricated by mucus, small pinnules move the food particles down a groove in the radiole to the worm's mouth in the centre of the crown. Whole colonies are either male, female or hermaphrodite. It is likely that these worms are protandrous hermaphrodites, starting life as males and becoming females when they are larger. If the crown is nipped off by a

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

, it is able to regenerate in a few weeks.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q771929 Sabellida Animals described in 1917