The Strangest Things in the World: A Book About Extraordinary Manifestations of NatureHenry, Thomas R. (Thomas Robert)
History
The Strangest Things in the World: A Book About Extraordinary Manifestations of Nature
Henry, Thomas R. (Thomas Robert)
Animal behavior; Natural history
Of another British tube builder which builds tubes of cemented shells
or pebbles near the roots of large sea weeds, Rev. Richard Johnston
says: “Sabellarid angilica is a timid, lively, active creature whose
most prominent ability is that of constructing a dwelling for itself
from sand grains. It is firm, durable, and capable of great resistance.
They are not easily crushed. Some appear much more brittle. Most of the
dwellings are lined with a soft, silky substance formed of exudations
from the body. The worms have a great preference in building materials.
They always prefer sand or shells. Powdered glass is used reluctantly
and soon rejected. Some tubes are short and confined, others
considerably prolonged so as to afford safe retreats in danger. Some
architects seem to persist in prolonging the fabric as long as material
can be found. They never weary of working. Grains of sand are selected
and adopted for precise spots and gelatinous matter secures them in the
tube walls.”
Perhaps the most notable of all the worm builders is a five-inch-long
species found in South African waters, pectinaris capensis, described
by Sir John McIntosh: “The beautiful straight tube formed by this
animal was composed of the spicules of sponges in short lengths placed
traversely and fixed by secretion so as to form a perfectly round
tunnel gently tapered from the wide to the narrow end. The spicules
appeared of the same size throughout the tube. The inner surface was
as smoothly formed as the outer. The labor involved in selecting and
fitting with such marvelous skill the sponge spicules composing so
large a tube must have been very arduous. One tube lasts the animal for
life.”
McIntosh tells of another South African architect worm that “builds out
of grains of sand arranged in a single layer like miniature masonry and
bound together by waterproof cement.”
There are, however, widely differing degrees of artistry among the
tube-dwelling polychaetes. Some tubes are rough, fragile, long, bent
in various directions, and united in colonies several inches to a
foot across. Sometimes tubes three to four inches long are attached
horizontally to the undersides of rocks.
A large and singular terebellid is Amphitrite ornata—twelve to fifteen
inches long with orange-brown tentacles capable of being extended eight
to ten inches. These are kept in constant motion gathering food and
material for building. The bodies of these worms are filled with blood,
but there is no circulatory system. The blood, however, apparently
can be forced into any part of the body by muscular contractions. The
tentacles can be turned voluntarily in any direction by forcing blood
into them.
Tube-building, flowering worms excited the wonder of Quatrefages as he
observed them along the Bay of Biscay in the nineteenth century:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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