Feeding and digestion in terebellid polychaetes

Abstract

Most of the naturalists of the nineteenth century were attracted by the tube-building abilities of the terebellid polychaetes rather than by their feeding behaviour. As Dalyell (1853) says in his Powers of the Creator, referring to terebellids: ‘All are architects, nor of contemptible skill, as we shall find on contemplating their mechanical labours.’ Perhaps the best known English work dealing with this subject is the paper by Arnold Watson (1890) on the tube-building habits of the sand mason (Lattice conchilega), and while concerned mainly with tube building, the paper does include some observations on the feeding habits. Earlier, Gosse (1854) had recorded his observations on the behaviour of terebellids, and some additional information may be found in Quatrefages's Treatise of 1865. The first serious attempt to find out more about the morphology and histology of the gut in terebellids was made by Claparède (1873), and this work was published posthumously in his monograph on the Polychaeta Sedentaria.