Eulalia picta Kinberg, 1866 – tube builder or specialized predator?

Abstract

Twenty six specimens of the polychaete Eulalia picta were found in finegrained sand tubes. Material was collected in the Antarctic fjord, Admiralty Bay at the depth of about 100 m. The comparison of tube sediment with the sediment composition at the collection site demonstrated that tubes were created with a high degree of particle selection. Our findings might suggest presence of the tube-building behavior in E. picta or show that this species is a highly specialized predator crawling into the tubes of other sessile polychaetes and uses their tubes as protective cases.

Devonian agglutinated polychaete tubes: all in all it's just another grain in the wall

“…Finally, and possibly most importantly, none of the above-mentioned groups show flanged tubular morphologies, besides annelids. Indeed, many extant polychaete families are capable of building tubular constructions with agglutinated material (some with high capacity of particle selectivity), including Sabellariidae [38], Pectinariidae [39], Oweniidae [10], Terebellidae [40], Maldanidae [41], Sabellidae [42], Capitellidae [43], Cirratulidae [43], Spionidae [44], Ampharetidae [45], Eunicidae [46], Fabricidae [47], Onuphidae [48], Nereididae [49], Trichobranchidae [50] and possibly even Phyllodocidae [51]. However, most of these groups produce agglutinated tubes that are simple cylindrical forms, without complex morphologies.…”