polynoid polychaete Barrukia cristata

Barrukia cristata is found in Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula, Peter I Island, South Shetland Islands, South Orkney Islands, South Sandwich Islands, and Bouvet Island from 5 to 1,120 meters depth [1,3,10]. B. cristata is up to 6.5 centimeters long and 1.6 centimeters wide [10].

Here's the underside of Barrukia cristata.

B. cristata has three generations per year, with germination taking place in December/January, June/July, and September/October [5].

B. cristata has a life span probably not more than 1.5 years [5].

Barrukia cristata is well disguised in the sediment, having a body covered with scales with protuberances like sand grains and hairy setae [8]. B. cristata is abundant in moderately deep soft bottoms in Terra Nova Bay [9].

B. cristata is an ambush predator, capturing food with an eversible armed pharynx [5,6].

B. cristata has been found in the stomach contents of the fish Trematomus centronotus, Trematomus loennbergi, Trematomus pennellii, and Trematomus bernacchii [4,7,11].



Here is a posterior view of Barrukia cristata, crawling under a rock.

Antarctic polychaetes have a much higher percentage of unique species than polychaete faunas in other parts of the world [2].

1: Polychaeta Errantia of Antarctica. O Hartman. Antarctic Research Series Volume 3. Washington DC : American Geophysical Union, 1964; 2: Adaptations within Antarctic Ecosystems, Proceedings of the Third SCAR Symposium on Antarctic Biology. GA Llano, ed. Washington, DC : Smithsonian Institution, 1977. pp.1111-1127; 3: Polychaetous Annelids Collected by the USNS Eltanin and Staten Island Cruises, Chiefly from Antarctic Seas. O Hartman. Allan Hancock Monographs in Marine Biology Number 2. Los Angeles : Allan Hancock Foundation, 1967; 4: Antarctic Science 6(1):61-65, 1994; 5: Adaptations within Antarctic Ecosystems, Proceedings of the Third SCAR Symposium on Antarctic Biology. GA Llano, ed. Washington, DC : Smithsonian Institution, 1977. pp.239-251; 6: Marine Invertebrates of Southern Australia, Part 1. SA Shepherd & IM Thomas. Adelaide, South Australia: DJ Woolman Government Printer, 1982; 7: Polar Biology 17(1):62-68, 1997; 8: Polar Biology 23(8):580-588, 2000; 9: Ross Sea Ecology : Italiantartide Expeditions (1987-1995). FM Faranda, L Guglielmo, A Ianora, eds. Berlin : Springer, 2000. pp. 551-561; 10: Marine Fauna of the Ross Sea: Polychaeta. GA Knox & DB Cameron. Wellington : National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, 1998. NIWA Biodiversity Memoir 108; 11: Ross Sea Ecology : Italiantartide Expeditions (1987-1995). FM Faranda, L Guglielmo, A Ianora, eds. Berlin : Springer, 2000. pp. 457-468

Text ©Peter Brueggeman. Photographs ©Peter Brueggeman & Canadian Museum of Nature (Kathleen Conlan). Photographs may not be used in any form without the express written permission of Peter Brueggeman and Canadian Museum of Nature (Kathleen Conlan).