Diet of Worms Emended: An Update of Polychaete Feeding Guilds

Abstract

Polychaetes are common in most marine habitats and dominate many infaunal communities. Functional guild classification based on taxonomic identity and morphology has linked community structure to ecological function. The functional guilds now include osmotrophic siboglinids as well as sipunculans, echiurans, and myzostomes, which molecular genetic analyses have placed within Annelida. Advances in understanding of encounter mechanisms explicitly relate motility to feeding mode. New analyses of burrowing mechanics explain the prevalence of bilateral symmetry and blur the boundary between surface and subsurface feeding. The dichotomy between microphagous deposit and suspension feeders and macrophagous carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores is further supported by divergent digestive strategies. Deposit feeding appears to be limited largely to worms longer than 1 cm, with juveniles and small worms in general restricted to ingesting highly digestible organic material and larger, rich food items, blurring the macrophage-microphage dichotomy that applies well to larger worms.