Bobbit worm

Eunice aphroditois · The bobbit worm is a bristle worm that lives on the seafloor of warm seas, mainly in the Atlantic Ocean but also in the Indo-Pacific.

Also called Sand striker, Bobbitt worm, Trap-jaw worm.

Bobbit worm
Photo: Rickard Zerpe, CC BY-SA 2.0
Bobbit worm
Photo: Kris-Mikael Krister, CC BY 2.0
Bobbit worm
Photo: Emőke Dénes, CC BY-SA 4.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumAnnelida
ClassPolychaeta
OrderEunicida
FamilyEunicidae
GenusEunice
SpeciesEunice aphroditois

Where it lives

Warm tropical and subtropical seabeds of the Indo-Pacific and Atlantic.

Fun facts

  • The bobbit worm is an ambush predator that buries its whole body in seafloor sediment and waits until its antennae detect prey, then strikes with sharp jaws.
  • Its jaws can retract inside its body, and they strike so hard that they can snap some prey in half.
  • The biggest bobbit worm on record was 299 cm long, making it the longest known member of the polychaete worm class.
  • Some fish fight back by ganging up and squirting jets of water into the worm's burrow to disorient it.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).