Other invertebrates

 

Nemertea.

There are several species of nemerteans (ribbon worms) in the White sea. One of the common ribbon worms is this Lineus sp.

It is a predator that eats mostly polychaetes. It takes its proboscis inside out rapidly and punches the prey's integument. Lineus may reach over 20 cm in length and its prey can be the same size. In this case the ribbon worms are similar to some snakes!

 

Bryozoans.

The bryozoans of the White sea are diverse, there are a lot of species. This is the biggest of them (I mean, it builds the biggest colony):

Flustra foliacea.

 

Brachiopoda.

Only one species of lamp shells lives in the White sea:

Hemythiris psittacea. You can easily meet a lot of them among the red algae deeper than 6-7 m.

 

Camptozoa.

This is a separate phylum of invertebrates related to bryozoans, brachiopods and phoronids. Camptozoans looke like tiny bryozoans, wich zooids have long and thin pedicels.

Interesting animals. This species lives mainly on Modiolus modiolus shell.

 

Hemichordata.

Only one species of only one class (Enteropneusta) of hemichordates lives in the White sea - Saccoglossus merezhkovski:

In the wild it looks like a small pink worm.

But "the worm" is only its proboscis:

The body is very fragile and is hidden in the hole. Saccoglossus feeds fumbling its long, cilias covered proboscis around the hole.

 

 

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