The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group. It is a place to note of any observations you have made of the world around you. Insects, weather, meteorites, climate, birds and/or flowers. All are worthy additions to the bucket. Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment. Include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns that are quietly unwinding around us.
This diary is not fully fact checked, many of the reference sources seemed contradictory.
But look at the purdy pichers and yak it up.
All photos except last in lightbox
A seagull has spotted something interesting
Grab it, mine, mine
The gull has caught a Nereid worm , of the polychaete class of annelids
http://en.wikipedia.org/....
Nereid worms spawn in swarms and in some species at least, timed to a lunar cycle.
The epikote has broken in two and most of the remaining spawn is delivered by air mail.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
More accurate perhaps to say the gull has caught the Epitoke of a Nereid.
The Nereid has undergone a transformation, all of it's body has become a dedicated spawning machine. Perhaps you recall such from your own post-adolescence. The transformation is nearly total. The worm grows many additional segments, greatly increases in size, resorbs it's digestive system and organs that will never be needed again, spawning is a one way trip. Some epitokes are just a section of the former body, commonly, but not always, the posterior portion. This worm (Which I think is a Pacific Giant Pile Worm) has transformed it's entire corpus, growing parapods to aid in swimming and hair like structures that in some of the polychaetes (fireworms) carry a painful toxin. The tubular body weakens between the segments, so that predators get less than half, and the all important spawn is released.
This is the Nereid worm sp. of the above sequence, it is small for it's type, only
about 2' long. Some sites say that gametes are released, others eggs and sperm.
I am pleading ignorance, and if needed, I can prove it. (Though by appearances, the behavior indicates that they are trying to get their stuff mixed among one another)
http://txmarspecies.tamug.edu/...
This is a Chinese Crested dog running at full speed, they are one of the 'hare footed' breeds like whippets and greyhounds. When this chubby looking little girl gets her winter growth trimmed she'll be the size and shape of a skinned rabbit. If speed scaled linear to size, these little guys could absolutely smoke a Cheetah. Only some of us believe in topics here.
Well, we just had another Nereid swarm, how about your backyard?