Alvinella pompejana

Description

General: Tube-dwelling polychaete worm with four pairs of red-orange lamellate branchia. Functional gut, with retracile buccal tentacles. Tubes are parchment-like and covered with metallic sulfur.

Size: 15 cm total length, with tubes to 2 cm in diameter.

Reproduction: Gonochoric. Engages in pseucopulatory behavior with males directly transferring sperm to females' spermathecae instead of broadcast dispersion of gametes. Larval development likely lecithotrophic or benthic.

Geographic Information

Ocean range (global): South of Baja, East Pacific Rise, other southern Pacific locales.

Habitat description: Benthic, hydrothermal vents.

Additional Information

Diet: Bacteria, both free-living and filamented epibiotic bacteria growing on its body.

References

Encyclopedia of Life

Tree of Life

World Register of Marine Species

National Center for Biotechnology Information

Desbruyères, D. and L. Laubier (1980). Alvinella pompejana gen. sp. nov., Ampharetidae aberrant des sources hydrothermales de la ride Est-Pacifique. Oceanologica Acta, 3: 267-274.

Desbruyères, D., M. Segonzac, and M. Bright, ed. (2006). Handbook of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent Fauna. 2nd edition. Linz: Denisia, 18, 544 pp.

Desbruyères, D., P. Chevaldonné, A.-M. Alayse, D. Jollivet, F.H. Lallier, C. Jouin-Toulmond, F. Zal, P.-M. Sarradin, R. Cosson, J.-C. Caprais, C. Arndt, J. O'Brien, J. Guezennec, S. Hourdez, R. Riso, F. Gaill, L. Laubier, and A. Toulmond (1998). Biology and ecology of the “Pompeii worm” (Alvinella pompejana Desbruyères and Laubier), a normal dweller of an extreme deep-sea environment: A synthesis of current knowledge and recent developments. Deep-Sea Research II, 45(1-3): 383-422. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0967-0645(97)00083-0