Amphiporus angulatus observation

The Amphiporus angulatus was the first of the interesting species I uncovered during my time in Alaska. My favorite professor Sherry Tamone, recently retired, took me and two of my friends out to Point Louisa in Juneau, AK and helped us find our chosen species for her invertebrate zoology class. My chosen species were the Amphiporus angulatus or better known as the red nemertean. Regardless of what people know it as, it is a relatively unknown species, however pretty common species in Southeast Alaska. This worm has a cool evolutionary characteristic called a proboscis, where it is able to completely eject its stomach/mouth towards prey in order to capture it. I saw this multiple times while keeping it on my hand, where it consistently tried to shoot it's stomach to eat anything around it in a state of panic. This marine worm is a carnivorous worm that feeds on protozoans and other microfauna with its proboscis. It also live intertidally, in about 50 to 150 feet below sea level (sealifebase.ca). I do not believe many Alaskans use this in many ways, but it is a really interesting animal that plays a role in the intertidal ecosystem. I think it is really interesting that there really is not a whole lot of information on this animal and that not many people know about it. My professor actually made us memorize the genus and species of this animal because it is such an important and overlooked species in the intertidal community.

“Amphiporus Angulatus (Fabricius, 1774).” Amphiporus Angulatus, Chevron Amphiporus, https://www.sealifebase.ca/summary/Amphiporus-angulatus.

Posted on Οκτώβριος 22, 2022 0702 ΠΜ by