''Chloeia flava'', also known as the golden fireworm, is a segmented bristleworm belonging to the family Amphinomidae.

Description

The golden fireworm has an elongated body. Its size varies between long, and wide, excluding bristles. Its coloration is red-brown to light brown with sometime a light color band in the middle of the body. The body is made of 37 visible segments, each of them has a distinctive ocelli, which is purple or dark color with a white outline and placed in the middle of the upper side. Small gills, white to deep brown, are present on both external sides of the back just before the bristles and on almost all the segments. The body is covered laterally with calcareous spines or setae, they have bristle aspect which are whitish, fine, sharp and venomous.

Distribution and habitat

''Chloeia flava'' is widely distributed through the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

area from the east coast of Africa, including the Red Sea, to the Pacific Ocean's islands except Hawaii and Polynesia. It is found in sandy to silty detrital areas close by the reef.Neville Coleman, ''Marine life of the Maldives'', Atoll Editions, Victoria, Australia,2000,

Biology

This worm is an active carnivore, especially at dawn and dusk. Its diet consists of coral polyps, sponges,

sea anemone Sea anemones are a group of predation, predatory marine invertebrates of the order (biology), order Actiniaria. Because of their colourful appearance, they are named after the ''Anemone'', a terrestrial flowering plant. Sea anemones are classifi ...

s, hydroids and tunicates.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q2017899 Errantia Animals described in 1766 Taxa named by Peter Simon Pallas