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Sunday, August 6, 2023

Leaving the lair

  

Okay, have you been wondering about the Turquoise Dragon and her developing larvae?  (See posts on 24 July 2023 and 29 July 2023.)

The larvae hatched on 2 August 2023 and Eric caught some of them crawling and swimming away in the video clip below.

The epitoke (reproductive stage of the worm) brooded the embryos/larvae for at least 12 days.  It's likely that the larvae will spend some time swimming in the plankton and growing (adding more body segments) before settling to the bottom and metamorphosing into juvenile worms.

[If you can't see the video player in your e-mail, click on the title of this post above to directly to the NBHB website.]


Thanks to Eric for sharing this great video clip!

5 comments:

Alice Chan said...

This must be the Turquoise Dragon version of "The kids are alright," right?
What a great video.

Lotsoflux said...

The Trilogy's conclusion! Another great video clip!
Vishnu

NHBH said...

Yes! The Turquoise Trilogy! Love it!

:) Jackie

Michael Brito said...

I keep coming back to these logs of the Turquoise Dragon. So cool to watch!

Jackie Sones said...

Yes, the Turquoise Dragon was a highlight of the summer! She is pretty special. Observations like this always make me appreciate how many species are out there that we know so little about!