Cannon Beach Ghost Millipede of the Sea?
February 4, 2010
On Sunday, January 31 at about 7:30 in the morning, my friend and I were taking one last stroll along the beautiful shore on Cannon Beach. The beach goes along south until it runs into some black rocks and tide pools. I’ve seen a lot of interesting things there, but this takes the cake.
Washed up on the sand, not caught in a tidepool but instead in a very shallow seabound stream, was a pale ghost of a creature that I admit, freaked me out. I’m pretty sure it was either dead or unaccustomed to surface pressure… it seemed quite limp in either case.
It was off-white, with an almost luminescent-looking greenish tinge. You can sort of see the color in the photo. And I couldn’t discern any eyes, just that rather spectacular pointed oblong of a head. And the spinal column… not that bugs necessarily have spines, but you know… was translucent, not whitish. You can see it in the photo; the translucent part seems to surround the …brain? Brrrr. Wow. Somewhere between 4 and 6 inches of fascinating, nameless wriggle – hard to say for sure with it folded up like that and me afraid to touch it (even with a stick).
I wish I had a better photo for you; the water was washing it back out to the ocean, and my camera is old and beat up. It certainly isn’t pretty enough to make picture of the month. But with any luck, you can tell me what this bizarre encounter was. Have you ever seen anything like it?
I haven’t, save perhaps in unremembered dreams…
Nikki Burns, still a Goonie
Cannon Beach, OR

Unknown Sea Worm

Dear Nikki,
Your letter is wonderful, and this creature is a bit out of our typical request realm, though we have identified marine worms in the past.  We are posting it immediately as unidentified in the hopes that one of our readers will have some clue as to its identity, and we will begin to research ourselves.  Meanwhile, hold tight and we will see what we are able to uncover.  We would strongly suggest that you post a comment to your own letter in the event that sometime far in the future, an identification is provided.  We generally write back if we get an identification in a few days, but eventually, a querant’s email address vanishes into the black hole that our email account becomes after about a week.

Hi again Nikki,
On a lark, we just did a search for sea worm, and found the Wikipedia page on the genus Glycera, Blood Worms, and it sure looks like your critter.

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Dark Golden Slug with one Black Stripe
August 8, 2009
Hey Bugman!
My father found this outside our house here in Georgia. He asked me to take a look at it because he thought I would know. I took a look and I have no idea what it is. It’s a dark golden color, slimy, has a wide head area, (Shaped like a hammerhead shark) legless, and has a black stripe running from it’s head down to it’s tail. It leaves a pretty nice slime trail so I’m guessing it’s a type of slug. Can you end this weird mystery for my father? He’s dying to know. Thanks!
Sean M.
Albany, GA

Arrowhead Flatworm

Hi Sean,
You have found an Arrowhead Flatworm or Land Planarian,  Bipalium kewense. Your specimen has a dark head and lacks the two distinct dorsal stripes normally associated with the species.  According to a Texas website:  “Now the good news . . . Land Panarians are effective predators as they will eat slugs and many types of harmful insect larvae. The thought of having a beneficial that preys on slugs should be encouraging!  But now the not-so-good news . . . while all of this sounds rather benign, the land planarian is not necessarily without flaws (at least from a gardener’s perspective—but Mother Nature does not operate in such black-and-white perspectives). Like an earthworm, it burrows in moist soil, but it can exhibit much more sinister epicurean habits. Although it will eat slugs and harmful insect larvae, the Land Planarian will also dine on earthworms!  It does so by lying atop the earthworm (the sticky mucus holds the earthworm to the soil. The land planarian then protrudes its pharynx out of its mouth and into the earthworm to suck out bodily fluids of an earthworm.  Land Planarians are reported to be cannibalistic when food resources are low. This may help to keep the population down, since the mucus membrane of the worm deters most other pests.” According to the Featured Creatures website which has a photo of a specimen with the same coloration as your specimen:  “Habitat: Because land planarians are photo-negative during daylight hours and require high humidity, they are found in dark, cool, moist areas under objects such as rocks, logs, in debris, or under shrubs, and on the soil surface following heavy rains. Land planarians are also found in caves, but are rare in rural sites. Movement and feeding occur at night. High humidity is essential to survival. They can survive desiccation only if water loss does not exceed 45 percent of their body weight. Land planarians are most abundant in spring and fall.”

Segmeted pencil-lead sized 12″ long
Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 10:05 AM
I have seen these at my house at least four times in the past eleven years. They have been on the driveway or walkway after a rain. I kept the first one in moist dirt in a baggy but it died.
The distal end is bifurcated with grippers. The proximal end is smooth and probing.
Laurie
N 35.50162694, W120.69228172

Horsehair Worm

Hi Laurie,
Thanks for the detailed coordinates, but we haven’t a GPS device to get a named location.  Seems like we are probably talking San Luis Obispo, California.  This is a Horsehair Worm or Gordian Worm.  It is an internal parasite that preys upon Potato Bugs and other Orthopterans.  We have also received reports in conjunction with Camel Crickets and Spiders.

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