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Anthopleura artemisia

(Burrowing Green Anemone)

Common Names

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Common Names in English:

Buried Anemone, Burrowing Anemone, Burrowing Green Anemone, Giant Green Anemone, Moonglow Anemone

Description

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Physical Description

Species Anthopleura artemisia

Typically lives partly buried in sand or shells but base of column is attached to a rock under the sediment. No acontia. Tubercles and symbionts are restricted to the upper two thirds of the column (symbionts are also in tentacles) so lower part of column is smooth and white or pink. Oral disk may be bright pink, orange, or green. Tentacles may be solidly colored or banded , and may be red, white, black, blue, gray, brown, or green (in SE Alaska they are usually green). The bands on tentacles (if present) are usually white. The margins of the oral disk contain white spherules for fighting, as do the other Anthopleura species.[1]

The column can get to 17 cm in diameter and reach 30 cm high. It has novaezealandiae.">compound, irregular tubercles (verrucae) on its column that are adhesive (often holding sand or bits of shell) and extend all the way to the bottom of the column. The base is slightly larger than column diameter and adheres to rocks. Many tentacles that are short and conical that can be either blunt or pointed . Base is green to dark green and brown. Tentacles are green, blue, or white without pink on the tips . No marks or bands. The oral disk is flat and usually green, but can be grayish-blue to greenish-blue.

A. xanthogrammica is basically a solitary species and can occur in numbers up to 14 per meter squared if conditions are favorable. They are vividly green if they are exposed to bright sunlight. The bright green can be attributed to green pigment in the anemone epidermis and to symbiotic algae that live in the tissues that line the gut . Inside there may be zoochorellae by itself or with zooxanthellae , which are dinoflagellates. These zoochorellae are reduced in numbers when in shady areas.

Habitat

Open coast and (more often) in protected bays , prefers habitats with rocks or cobble buried in sand . Giant green anemones live on the rocks of tide pools and in deep channels on exposed rocky shores . They can also be found on concrete pilings in open bays and harbors. Depth Range : Benthic to low and mid intertidal zone.

Depth Range: Low intertidal and subtidal to about 30 meters

Biology

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Diet

They eat detached mussels, sea urchins, small fish, and crabs. Mussels seem to be a primary item in the diet .

In British Columbia this species has been observed feeding on spawned herring eggs .[1]

Reproduction

These anemones release sperm and eggs in late spring to summer. The larvae swim or float freely, dispersing. They do not split in half asexually.

Behavior

Normally only the tentacles and oral disk are exposed, with the rest of the anemone buried in the sediment. This species is capable of greatly elongating. At low tide the anemone may withdraw below the surface of the sediment. Sometimes they live in holes made by boring clams. Individuals are solitary as in A. xanthogrammica, but they can divide asexually by longitudinal fission as in A. elegantissima. They will attack other individuals who are nearby using their special white spherule tentacles.[1]

Taxonomy

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Unambiguous Synonyms

  1. Actinia artemisia (Pickering)
  2. Actinia artemisia Pickering in Dana, 1846
  3. Anthopleura xanthogrammica Brandt
  4. Cereus artemisia
  5. Cribrina artemisia
  6. Cribrina artemisia (Pickering)
  7. Evactis artemisia (Dana 1849)
  8. Evactis artemisia (Dana) Ver.
  9. Evactis artemisia (Dana, 1848)
  10. Evactis artemisia (Drayton) Verrill
  11. Evactis artemisia (Pikher.) Verr.
  12. Evactis artemisia Verrill

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: October 15, 2001.

Similar Species

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Both A. elegantissima and A. xanthogrammica have tubercles and symbionts all the way to the bottom of the column, and live on rock or protrude through only a little sand. May be confused with A. sola or large A. elegantissima but both of those species have pink tips on tentacles, the oral disk is usually striped, and tubercles (verrucae) on the column are usually in distinct lengthwise rows (picture in A. sola). Anthopleura artemisia has verrucae on only the top 2/3 of its column and usually lives mostly buried in sand.

Members of the genus Anthopleura

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 54 species and subspecies in this genus:

A. sola · A. africana · A. anjunae · A. anneae · A. artemisia (Burrowing Green Anemone) · A. asiatica · A. atodai · A. aureoradiata · A. ballii · A. buddemeieri · A. carneola · A. cascaia · A. chinensis · A. dixoniana · A. dowii · A. elatensis · A. elegantissima (Aggregating Anemone) · A. sola · A. foxi · A. gelam · A. handi · A. handi · A. handi · A. incerta · A. inconspicua · A. insignis · A. japonica · A. kohli · A. krebsi (Rock Anemone) · A. kurogane · A. listeri · A. mariscali · A. michaelseni · A. midori · A. minima · A. mortenseni · A. mortoni · A. nigrescens · A. orientalis · A. pacifica · A. panikkarii · A. qingdaoensis · A. rosea · A. rubripunctata · A. sola (Solitary Anemone) · A. stellula · A. texaensis · A. thallia · A. varioarmata · A. xanthogrammica (Giant Green Sea Anemone) · A. sola · A. michaelseni · A. anneae · A. michaelseni

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal January 27, 2008:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Cowles, Dave. Key to Invertebrates Found At or Near The Rosario Beach Marine Laboratory (a campus of Walla Walla University) Fidalgo Island, Anacortes, WA May 2009. [back]
Last Revised: 7/2/2009