Orange through and through

 

Eric spotted this interesting ribbon worm, or nemertean, on two different days in the field during the last couple of months.  We hadn't noticed this species before, so we took a few photographs for the record.  The individual above is from Bodega Head.

Here's another example from a tidepool on the Big Sur coast:

 

We had trouble identifying this ribbon worm, so Eric reached out to Svetlana Maslakova at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology.  She identified it as Cephalothrix sp. (possibly in the cryptic species complex Cephalothrix "simula").

Eric filmed the individual from Bodega Head, so we've included a short video clip below.  [If you're reading this via e-mail and don't see the video player, click on the title of the blog post above to see the video on the website.]

It's always fun to add a new species to the Bodega Head marine invertebrate list.

P.S.  Many thanks to Svetlana for sharing her ribbon worm expertise!