by Judy Herwitz, Jack Kaufmann, Tom Poulson, John Willis
Being an Analytical Key to the Families of Polychaete Worms
Examined by the Authors at Woods Hole during the Summer of 1957
If you meet a worm with a true coelom
And a body divided in rings,
Then pick him up and take him home
and apply the following things.
(The only worm too firm to squirm
is Aphrodite in her fuzzy nighty.
- Aphroditidae)
| 1 | a. | One criterion that never fails | |
| Is the Polynoidaens' dorsal scales | - Polynoidae | ||
| b. | If there are none of these we're not yet through | ||
| Please go on to couplet two | -2 | ||
| 2 | a. | If tentacles feathery hide his face | |
| You're nearing the end of this hectic chase | -3 | ||
| b. | If his face is not a feather duster | ||
| We have yet another cluster | -4 | ||
| 3 | a. | If he lives in a tube calcine | |
| You've arrived at the final line | - Serpulidae | ||
| b. | But if his tube is soft or sandy | ||
| Then he's a Sabellid fine and dandy | - Sabellidae | ||
| 4 | a. | An ice-cream cone of grains of sand | |
| Is Pectinaria's | - Pectinariidae | ||
| b. | But if such a cone is not his dwelling | ||
| What he is we're not yet telling | -5 | ||
| 5 | a. | Thread-like tentacles (see place 3)? | |
| On to couplet six with thee | -6 | ||
| b. | If not as above | ||
| Still onward shove | -7 | ||
| 6 | a. | Tentacles all on segment one | |
| Entangling food that's on the run | - Terebellidae | ||
| b. | Tentacles spread on the body - instead | ||
| of being restricted just to the head | - Cirratulidae | ||
| 7 | a. | Head and prostomium apparently bare | |
| Don't raise your hopes - we're still not here | -8 | ||
| b. | If head appendages can be seen | ||
| Then skip along to line fourteen | -14 | ||
| 8 | a. | With thickened nodes and segments long | |
| "The Bamboo Worm" cannot be wrong | - Maldanidae | ||
| b. | If these criteria don't satisfy | ||
| Then let's continue to classify. | -9 | ||
| 9 | a. | A monstrous slug of greenish black | |
| Arenicola - throw him back! | - Arencolidae | ||
| b. | Of worms of a somewhat brighter hue | ||
| We have, my friends, not just a few | -10 | ||
| 10 | a. | With feet and gills not easily seen | |
| And a body thin and long | |||
| He sports an iridescent sheen | |||
| And to this family doth belong | - Lumbrinereidae | ||
| b. | If not as described in above quatrain | ||
| Look down below and try again | -11 | ||
| 11 | a. | With parapods of equal size | |
| Each body segment he supplies | -12 | ||
| b. | From segment to segment, the parapods vary | ||
| Larger or smaller, or lacking, or hairy | -13 | ||
| 12 | a. | A long cylindrical slender shaft, | |
| Glycera's pointed fore and aft | - Glyceridae | ||
| b. | Short and fat with hind end stubby | ||
| This worm's aspect's rather grubby | - Opheliidae | ||
| c. | Nephtys shimmies as she goes | ||
| With flattened body and squared-off nose | - Nephtyidae | ||
| 13 | a. | The Capitellids' gills are small | |
| It's hard to tell they're there at all | - Capitellidae | ||
| b. | Over the back his well-formed gills | ||
| Present an arch of scarlet frills | - Orbiniidae | ||
| 14 | a. | "Omnis animalia in tres partes divisa est" | |
| Separates Chaetopterus from all the rest | - Chaetopteridae | ||
| b. | Those below are all provided | ||
| With bodies that are undivided | -15 | ||
| 15 | a. | Ram's horns on his head he bears, | |
| Metallic grey or green he wears | - Spionidae | ||
| b. | If no ram's horns, look down below | ||
| There's still a little way to go | -16 | ||
| 16 | a. | The width is 5 mm or more | |
| In these worms of substantial bore | -17 | ||
| b. | Less than 1 mm is lean - | ||
| You'll find these filed in space nineteen | -19 | ||
| 17 | a. | A pair of jointed palps he bears, | |
| This errant sans domestic cares | - Nereidae | ||
| b. | These worms are always found at home | ||
| In tubes from which they never roam | -18 | ||
| 18 | a. | Seven tentacles on the front of his trunk | |
| He lives in a tube encrusted with junk | - Onuphidae | ||
| b. | Five prostomial tentacles mark him | ||
| Count them - you'll know him | |||
| whenever you ark him | - Eunicidae | ||
| 19 | a. | Paddle-like cirri are plain to see | |
| On the sides of the Phyllodocidae | - Phyllodocidae | ||
| b. | If he has short and rod-like cirri | ||
| Ended is this task so dreary | - Syllidae | ||
| If you've still not found the proper name . . . .
Publish fast and win your fame! |
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| Meet the authors: | |||
| Judy Herwitz is a daisy -
Keeps our group from looking lazy. Impressing all the invert staff With Warburg tubes and kymograph. |
|||
| Thomas Poulson is no shirker
He's a real compulsive worker Labors far into the night Drawings pictures left and right. |
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| Described in learned words exotic,
Willis' scheme is symbiotic. Put in plain and simple terms He trades his charms for notes on worms. |
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| Last and least we finally come
to Kaufmann (what a lazy bum!) One wonders what he can achieve - Being last to come and first to leave. |
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(posted May 1, 2005)