丝带蠕虫（门肠）是一群陌生的无脊椎动物，是水族馆和普通公共的群体。尽管他们偶尔immense size, this unique phylum of animal life is seldom on anyone’s radar. Which is why it came as a surprise to find a video of one of these creatures taking the internet by storm this week.
[Dakin＆Fordham的图片上方，1936年]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxtkxlr5yqm
在简短的剪辑中，可以看到所讨论的蠕虫可以挤出看起来像乳白色的物质。乍一看，这似乎是某种粘稠的防御性分泌物，但事实实际上是陌生人。这是一个高度修改的长鼻，其结构是NemeTean的这个特殊属的独特之处，Gorgonorhynchus. All ribbon worms possess a proboscis, which is typically either a long cylinder covered in papillae or may instead have a sharp venomous stylet at the end. A handful of other genera (树突状,Polybranchiorhynchus,Panorhynchus) likewise possess a branched proboscis, but in these groups the main branch of the proboscis has only short side branches, giving it an appearance analogous to the shape of a bird’s feather.
All of these genera are species-poor and (with the exception of a single deepwater Antarctic species) can be found in shallow, muddy marine habitats. Despite there being little published on the life history ofGorgonorhynchus, we can make some inferences based on its ecological preferences and unique morphology. Comparable feeding structures can be seen in Spaghetti Worms (in the distantly related Phylum Annelida), which use their panoply of feeding tentacles to sweep the ocean’s benthos for organic particles.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT2x9YuowqU[/youtube]
Perhaps a better example can be found in theMedusa Worms, which, despite the similar common name, are actually highly modified Sea Cucumbers (Phylum Echinodermata). So isGorgonorhynchusfeeding in a similar manner? If so, this might make for an interesting and useful addition to a reef aquarium. The great disadvantage Medusa Worms have is that their incredibly delicate bodies and great physical length make them unsuitable for most aquaria. The smaller and apparently more robust Gorgon Worm could thus fill an important niche within captive marine ecosystems that is currently underutilized. But the possibility (likelihood?) also exists that this dendritic proboscis is instead used to entrap prey, in a manner similar to the裸体Melibe… in which case this worm would probably be a terrible, terrible thing to add to an aquarium. Remember that the majority of Ribbon worms are carnivorous.
There are only two described species ofGorgonorhynchus: the PacificG. repensand the AtlanticG. bermudensis，尽管后一个分类单元实际上可能是太平洋形式的代名词。与相关的色带蠕虫属相比，这是一个较宽的生物地理范围，并暗示了它们在水族馆收集区域的潜在丰度。轶事报告表明，这些生物可以在每平方米蠕虫的密度中找到，并且在视频制作互联网的视频中，标本很常见，足以将其作为钓鱼诱饵收集。毫无疑问，至少有一些勇敢的水族馆（例如我）愿意并希望将这个迷人的生物保留在水族馆中……如果只有某人会收集并导出它们。
