Bonellia viridis
Encyclopedia
The Green Spoonworm is a marine worm
(phylum Annelida) noted for displaying exceptional sexual dimorphism
and for the biocidal properties of a pigment in its skin.
The species is wide-ranging, found in the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean
, Indian
and Pacific Oceans, and the Mediterranean and Red
seas. The pale- to dark-green female, with a 15 cm-long, round or sausage-shaped body, lives on the sea-floor at a depth of 10 to 100 metres, concealed by burrowing in gravel or hiding in rock crevasses or burrows abandoned by other animals. It has two anchoring hooks underneath its body and an extensible feeding proboscis up to 10 times its body-length. It is mainly a detritivore
, feeding also on small animals. The male is rarely observed: it has a flat, unpigmented body which grows to only 1-3 mm, taken up mostly by reproductive organs and devoid of other structures; they live on or inside the body of a female.
s.
. The plankton
ic, free-swimming Bonellia larvae are initially sexually undifferentiated. Larvae which land on unoccupied sea-floor mature, over the period of years, into adult females. Most larvae, however, come in contact with the bonellin in the skin of an adult female -- its body or its roving, bonellin-rich proboscis -- and are masculinised by this exposure. The chemical causes these larvae to develop into the tiny males, which cling to the female's body or are sucked inside it by the feeding tube, to spend the remainder of their lives inside her genital sac, producing sperm to fertilize her eggs, reliant on her for all other needs.
The sex of a Green Spoonworm is thus determined by external, environmental factors (the presence or absence of bonellin), not by internal, genetic factors (chromosomes), as is the case with most other sexually-differentiated organisms. This environmental sex determination
helps Green Spoonworm populations respond to the availability of burrows.
Worm
The term worm refers to an obsolete taxon used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, and stems from the Old English word wyrm. Currently it is used to describe many different distantly-related animals that typically have a long cylindrical...
(phylum Annelida) noted for displaying exceptional sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism is a phenotypic difference between males and females of the same species. Examples of such differences include differences in morphology, ornamentation, and behavior.-Examples:-Ornamentation / coloration:...
and for the biocidal properties of a pigment in its skin.
The species is wide-ranging, found in the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
, Indian
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
and Pacific Oceans, and the Mediterranean and Red
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
seas. The pale- to dark-green female, with a 15 cm-long, round or sausage-shaped body, lives on the sea-floor at a depth of 10 to 100 metres, concealed by burrowing in gravel or hiding in rock crevasses or burrows abandoned by other animals. It has two anchoring hooks underneath its body and an extensible feeding proboscis up to 10 times its body-length. It is mainly a detritivore
Detritivore
Detritivores, also known as detritophages or detritus feeders or detritus eaters or saprophages, are heterotrophs that obtain nutrients by consuming detritus . By doing so, they contribute to decomposition and the nutrient cycles...
, feeding also on small animals. The male is rarely observed: it has a flat, unpigmented body which grows to only 1-3 mm, taken up mostly by reproductive organs and devoid of other structures; they live on or inside the body of a female.
Green Spoonworm and bonellin as biocidal agent
The adult Bonellia female produces a vivid green pigment in its skin, known as bonellin. This chemical, concentrated mostly in the proboscis, is highly toxic to other organisms, capable of paralyzing small animals. In the presence of light, bonellin is a very effective biocide, killing bacteria, larva of other organisms, and red blood cells in laboratory tests. It is currently being investigated as a possible model for novel antibioticAntibiotic
An antibacterial is a compound or substance that kills or slows down the growth of bacteria.The term is often used synonymously with the term antibiotic; today, however, with increased knowledge of the causative agents of various infectious diseases, antibiotic has come to denote a broader range of...
s.
Green Spoonworm and sexual dimorphism
The same chemical plays a unique role in the worm's sexual differentiationSexual differentiation
Sexual differentiation is the process of development of the differences between males and females from an undifferentiated zygote...
. The plankton
Plankton
Plankton are any drifting organisms that inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. That is, plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than phylogenetic or taxonomic classification...
ic, free-swimming Bonellia larvae are initially sexually undifferentiated. Larvae which land on unoccupied sea-floor mature, over the period of years, into adult females. Most larvae, however, come in contact with the bonellin in the skin of an adult female -- its body or its roving, bonellin-rich proboscis -- and are masculinised by this exposure. The chemical causes these larvae to develop into the tiny males, which cling to the female's body or are sucked inside it by the feeding tube, to spend the remainder of their lives inside her genital sac, producing sperm to fertilize her eggs, reliant on her for all other needs.
The sex of a Green Spoonworm is thus determined by external, environmental factors (the presence or absence of bonellin), not by internal, genetic factors (chromosomes), as is the case with most other sexually-differentiated organisms. This environmental sex determination
Environmental sex determination
Environmental sex determination or ESD is any sex-determination system in which sex is established by a nongenetic cue experienced within a discrete period after conception. In contrast, genotypic sex determination occurs when sex is established by genetic factors at conception...
helps Green Spoonworm populations respond to the availability of burrows.