Edwardsia Neozelanica on:
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''Edwardsia neozelanica'', commonly known as the burrowing anemone, is a small cryptic
This tiny anemone has a diameter of just 5 millimetres and a length of 30–50 millimetres. Its long worm-like body is divided into three parts: physa, scapus, and capitulum. The physa is a bulbous bladder-like organ covered with tiny suckers, used in burrowing. The scapus or body column is wrinkly and covered with a rough cuticle that can be brown, grey, or orange in colour, with a narrow neck at the top connecting it to the capitulum or oral end.
''E. neozelanica'' has on its capitulum sixteen or more transparent tentacles, usually in two whorls of eight, that are pinkish white to buff yellow or brown in colour. Each tentacle in the outer whorl corresponds with one of eight brown lines that originate on the scapus as longitudinal double white lines.
sea anemone
Sea anemones are a group of predation, predatory marine invertebrates of the order (biology), order Actiniaria. Because of their colourful appearance, they are named after the ''Anemone'', a terrestrial flowering plant. Sea anemones are classifi ...
from New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. It burrows into soft mud or sand, and when covered with water extends its tentacles to feed on tiny particles of detritus
In biology, detritus () is dead particulate organic material, as distinguished from dissolved organic material. Detritus typically includes the bodies or fragments of bodies of dead organisms, and fecal material. Detritus typically hosts commun ...
.
Distribution and habitat
''E. neozelanica'' is found in New Zealand, inintertidal
The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of Marine habitat, habitats with var ...
areas such as harbour mouths or rock pools where silt and mud accumulates. Being small and so similar in colour to the substrate it lives in, ''E. neozelanica'' is a cryptic species most often found when sand or mud is passed through a fine sieve.
Description
This tiny anemone has a diameter of just 5 millimetres and a length of 30–50 millimetres. Its long worm-like body is divided into three parts: physa, scapus, and capitulum. The physa is a bulbous bladder-like organ covered with tiny suckers, used in burrowing. The scapus or body column is wrinkly and covered with a rough cuticle that can be brown, grey, or orange in colour, with a narrow neck at the top connecting it to the capitulum or oral end.
''E. neozelanica'' has on its capitulum sixteen or more transparent tentacles, usually in two whorls of eight, that are pinkish white to buff yellow or brown in colour. Each tentacle in the outer whorl corresponds with one of eight brown lines that originate on the scapus as longitudinal double white lines.
Behaviour and diet
This worm-like sea anemone thrusts its body into soft mud or sand before anchoring itself in place by slightly swelling its body column. Only its oral disc and tentacles are visible above the silt. It feeds on organicdetritus
In biology, detritus () is dead particulate organic material, as distinguished from dissolved organic material. Detritus typically includes the bodies or fragments of bodies of dead organisms, and fecal material. Detritus typically hosts commun ...
, extending its fine tentacles across the surface of the sediment.
References
C Cnidarians of the Pacific Ocean Marine fauna of New Zealand Animals described in 1898 {{Actiniaria-stub