Worms!

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Worms finer for fishing you couldn't be wishing;
I delved them dismayed from the velvety sod;
The rich loam upturning I gathered them squirming,
big, fat, gleamy earthworms, all ripe for my rod.
Robert Service

In the morning if you get outside early enough you will see blackbirds pull wiggling pink worms from the grass before wolfing them down hungrily. The sea is also home to worms of all descriptions: long, short, fat, thin, hairy, spiky…, you could come up with pretty much any adjective and there are worms to meet the description.

These worms rely on a body full of water to support themselves; they have no skeleton like you and me, but pump water around the body to keep themselves from collapsing into a mess of flesh and skin. When threatened they can burrow into sediment, crawl into crevices or hide in specially made homes.

On the reef, there are mobile worms which patrol the sea bed in search of an unsuspecting victim to catch, crunch and swallow. One such individual is the bearded fire worm which can be found moving rapidly over the corals and rocks showing a glittery back of pinks, yellows and golds. But beware, if you get too curious and touch these twisting creatures, tiny little hairs will stick into your skin causing it to itch and burn.

Then there are the sedentary worms, these ones don’t move about but sit in tubes made of what feels like papier-mâché or little sand grains glued together with saliva. They can feed in a number of ways: with feather-like arms that reach out into the water catching food as it drifts past in the currents, or they move a circle of tentacles across the surface of the sand and mud, picking up tiny crumbs which they then draw back into their mouths for a tasty snack.

So next time you come across a worm in your garden covered with earth, think of their brightly coloured cousins living on the reef!

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