General: Long transparent red, purple, or white tentacles with a darker colored center. Exhibits both deposit and predatory (raptorial) feeding behaviors.
Geographic Information
Habitat description: Benthic; column normally buried in soft sediment, but it is capable of leaving its burrow (hemisessile). We have observed them somersaulting over the seafloor (see sequence in images 3 - 5).
Riemann-Zurneck, K. (1997). A heisessile sea anemone from the Porcupine Abyssal Plan, North Atlantic Ocean: IOSACTIS. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK, 77: 1011–1025.
Durden, J.M., B.J. Bett, and H.A., Ruhl (2015). The hemisessile lifestyle and feeding strategies of Iosactis vagabunda (Actiniaria, Iosactiidae), a dominant megafaunal species of the Porcupine Abyssal Plain. Deep Sea Research I, 102: 72-77.
Citation:Iosactis vagabunda (Riemann-Zürneck, 1997) Deep-Sea Guide (DSG) at http://dsg/mbari.org/dsg/view/concept/Iosactis%20vagabunda. Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). Consulted on 2024-04-25.
Somersaulting behavior as observed over about 1.5 min. (1 of 3).MBARI 2005: T782-04
Somersaulting behavior as observed over about 1.5 min. (2 of 3).MBARI 2005: T782-04
Somersaulting behavior as observed over about 1.5 min. (3 of 3).MBARI 2005: T782-04