University of Maine Farmington Lecturer Visits the Gulf of Maine on the Wild Hunt for Worms
Last week, Tidepool Tim welcomed Nancy Prentiss to Pembroke in search of the coveted subject of her latest invertebrate study. Nancy was after the polychaete worm, Myxicola infundibulum, more commonly referred to as the Slime Fan Worm.
Polychaetes are segmented worms, with each segment of their body featuring pairs of protrusions, or parapodia. The parapodia are loaded up with fine bristles; these marine annelids are also known as “bristle worms.” The scientific term for the bristles is called chaetae. Thus, we come to the name of the class: poly (meaning many) + chaeta. Many bristles!
Diagram taken from reefkeeping.com (Polychaete Annelid Identification)
Slime Fan Worms. Photo by Andrew J. Martinez
The chaetae aid in locomotion, stabilization, defense, and sensing the surrounding environment, and are made of chitin. Chitin, a long-chain polysaccharide, was also mentioned in our last blog post as being the flexible, though sturdy, chemical compound that forms the shell of the lobster. Chitin has an array of functions for other members of the animal kingdom including: arthropod exoskeletons, mollusk radulae, and fish scales. Plus, chitin is the same biomaterial that makes up the cell wall of fungi.
Nancy found us while looking online for a source of live Myxicola to use in her research studies. She has been borrowing older specimens from collaborating laboratories, but was really hoping to get some variety in the mix for her latest project, as she attempts to decipher differences in the DNA of Myxicola specimen from different geographic areas. What a pleasant surprise for Nancy to find that we have sources of Myxicola here and are in driving range of her home in Farmington!
With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, students and researchers all over the world are feeling the strain of remote work on biological study as dissection labs shift to online demos, bench scientists are made to work in shifts, and field biologists have to limit their travel to key research areas. Nancy is making do with what resources she has at her disposal. Luckily, that includes the biodiverse tidal shores of coastal Maine.
So, Nancy drove up to Cobscook Bay and got right to her digging! Slime Fan Worms have a distinctive appearance, “like a tiny palm tree sticking up out of cracks and holes,” according to Tidepool Tim. Their tentacles emerge around their mouth and make a funnel-like appearance, peeking up in between rocks and mussel shells on the seafloor.
Cobscook Bay Kelps in the morning sun. Photo by Nancy Prentiss.
Harvesting these worms was an arduous task, but Nancy enjoyed the morning sunlight and took some beautiful photos of our local kelps out in Cobscook Bay. She observed how differently the kelps grow by region, even just a few hours’ drive south on the Maine coastline.
Nancy’s challenge in harvesting these worms was that once she found a Slime Fan Worm, and attempted to dig it out of its burrow, the animal quickly recoiled into the mud. Using tools disturbs the silt, so Nancy had to wait until the particles settled before digging in again to find her little worm.
Myxicola infundibulum is covered in a mucus sheath that is two or three times the size of the worm itself. The worm uses its slime tube for protection from predators like crabs or fish, retreating into the slime tube like a turtle into its shell. As the worm retreats for protection, it leaves behind a trail of mucus.
For Nancy, this mucus trail served like a smoke signal that led her right back to her point of attack.
“Doesn’t look like much!” she said, pulling out from the water a Gulf of Maine Fine Specimen for her research purposes. We didn’t collect as many as we would have liked to this round, but sometimes that’s how things go – when the tide starts rushing in, the tidepoolers have to rush out back to dry land!
We thank Nancy for visiting us here in Downeast Maine and hope she will come again to harvest with us soon!
