Category: Segmented Worms view all from this category

Description 36" (91 cm) long, 1 3/4 (44 mm) wide. Thicker in head region, tapered toward rear. 200 segments. Iridescent greenish, bluish, or greenish-brown above, usually with fine red, gold, or white spots, paler beneath; appendages red, showing blood vessels. Head with 4 pairs of tentacles of equal length; a fleshy lip on each side of mouth, lobe above mouth broad, rectangular, with pair of short tentacles; proboscis with pair of strong, black jaws. 2 pairs of eyes; body appendages 2-lobed, upper part of appendages broad and leaflike.

Habitat In sand, sandy mud, mud, clay, and various peat bottoms, among roots of eelgrass, in protected waters and in brackish estuaries; from near high-tide line to water more than 500' (152 m) deep.

Range Maine to Virginia; entire Pacific Coast.

Discussion The Clam Worm is a swift and voracious predator, feeding on other worms and invertebrates, carrion, and certain algae. It has a keen sense of smell and in captivity can readily locate bits of fresh clam meat. Another large nereid found in Pacific waters, N. brandii is very difficult to distinguish from N. virens and indeed may intergrade with it.