Comments on Chris Glaby's news (6 Sept.):
No, I have not yet seen or been told about big polychaetes hooked up by
anglers, instead of hoped for fishes. But I easily imagine that a bait
available on the bottom (not in mid water) - and why not a piece of mad
cow meat as this seemed to be the case in Chris' story - could attract big
carrion feeding Amphinomid worms. I am not familiar with Chloeia flava,
but another big caterpillar-like Amphinomid is Hermodice carunculata
(Pallas, 1766), and this one is well known to divers as a carrion feeder.
Sorry for those who possibly put it into the feeding guild of predators, in
fact it does not care much about such attributions and is able also to
browse on corals. Hermodice carunculata is attracted by carrion, many
specimens may thus assemble on a dead fish. Hermodice surely would
not despise mad cow carcasses either (but these would have to be
shipped quite far away from the main producer countries). As far as I am
informed, H. carunculata is a lower latitude species. I saw it under water
in the Azores, Madeira, and Lebanon. It has also been reported from the
Carribean.
H. carunculata has irritating bristles, indeed like some caterpillars. In this
lab the following story is told: in former times (the 1950s) a well known
marine biologist discovered (new to him) H. carunculata while snorkeling
in southern Mediterranean waters. Having no container at hand (plastic
bags easy to carry along were not yet of common use), he put some into
his slip in order to take them to shore. That could be a complementary
topic for Chris' intended paper in an appropriate journal/magazine.
Helmut ZIBROWIUS
Centre d'Oceanologie de Marseille
Station Marine d'Endoume
Rue Batterie des Lions
13007 Marseille / France
TEL: +33 (0) 491041624
FAX: +33 (0) 491041635
E-MAIL: hzibrowi at com.univ-mrs.frhttp://www.com.univ-mrs.fr
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