Appearance
These ambush predators have five antennae on their head that are used to sense prey. The body is covered by a hard exoskeleton. The mandibles can be retracted inside the body and are responsible for striking and stunning prey; they are capable of snapping some prey in half. Typically, ''E. aphroditois'' ranges from deep purple to black, with an iridescent skin. The largest known specimen on record reached 299 centimeters in length, making it the longest known member of the polychaete class. Despite these great lengths, the worms are slim, with the body only about 25.5 millimeters wide.
Habitat
This species may be found prowling among the prey-rich environment of coral reefs, where its coloration allows it to blend in and its slim body enables it to hunt in tight places. It inhabits a wide range of other habitats, particularly sandy and muddy sediments, as well as around rocks and sponges. It has been recorded at depths of up to 95 meters .
Food
''Eunice aphroditois'' senses passing prey with its antennae, seizes the prey with their mandibles, and drags it into its burrow. This species is not only considered to be a carnivore, feeding on a plethora of species of fish, but it can also be considered an herbivore/omnivore, feeding on algae, as well as a decomposer, feeding on dead and decaying matter.To reduce predation risk, some fish engage in mobbing behavior, during which a group of fish will direct jets of water into the worm's burrow to disorient it.
Ancestral species may have exhibited the same hunting behavior 20 million years ago, according to fossil-records.
Evolution
Fossil burrows from the Miocene of northeastern Taiwan have been likened to ''E. aphroditois''. The burrows, classified in the ichnogenus ''Pennichnus'', have been found preserved in fine-grained sandstone. They are L-shaped and can reach up to 2 metres in length, with a vertical section covered in feather-like collapse structures comprising around 40% of the burrow length, connected by a short intermediate section to a horizontal section amounting for 50% of the length. The burrows are on average 2.5 centimetres wide at the entrance, and taper down to 2 centimetres at the end of the horizontal section.Cultural
While not commonly kept in aquaculture, individuals of ''E. aphroditois'' are occasionally found in home aquaria, where smaller specimens can evade detection by being transported into the tank in live rocks, where they then grow in size. As ''E. aphroditois'' hunts fish, it cannot be kept as part of a community tank and should be removed when found, as it will deplete the aquarium's stock by direct predation.''E. aphroditois'' can be difficult to remove from aquariums due to their abilities to split into new individuals when cut in half, dig holes into rocks, and curl up and hide in small rocks, despite their length.
References:
Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.
