Errant Polychaete - Amblyosyllis

This swimming adult polychaete worm, Amblyosyllis sp., is a remarkable worm taken in a plankton haul at Bamfield Marine Station in the summer of 2003. A few polychaete annelids swim and feed in the plankton as adults. This species is similar to one of the more common planktonic species, Autolytus, and was at first mistakenly thought to belong to that genus. But it turned out to be a related genus in the same family, the Syllidae, a diverse and fairly abundant group of polychaetes.