First report of Nereis (Neanthes) virens (Sars) an epitoky

Journal of Research in Biology 


An International Scientific Research Journal 

ORIGINAL RESEARCH 

ISSN No: Print: 2231 –6280; Online: 2231- 6299 

First report of Nereis (Neanthes) virens (Sars) an epitoky polychaete worm 

from Middle Strait, Baratang, Andaman Island, India 

Authors: 

Muruganantham M, 

Mohan PM, 

Karunakumari R and 

Vibha V. Ubare. 

Institution: 

Department of Ocean 

Studies and Marine 

Pondicherry University, 

Brookshabad Campus, 

Port Blair – 744 112, 

Andaman and Nicobar 

Islands, India. 

ABSTRACT: 

A sudden and mass outburst of the epitoky polychaete worm Nereis 

(Neanthes) virens (Sars)/ Alitta virens was observed of the surface waters of Middle 

Strait, Baratang, South Andaman Island during July 2014. This polychaeta worm was 

studied for its morphology and structural characteristics. We have taken nine 

consecutive seasonal samplings from July 2011 to January 2015, this was the first 

appearance of these worms in such a huge mass. These epitoky worms were observed 

in the month of July 2014 during monsoonal season in Andaman Nicobar Islands. Even 

though detailed studies were carried out on this worm in the world oceans, the 

present observation was the first report on the tropical island ecosystem of Andaman 

and Nicobar Islands. 

Keywords: 

Nereis (Nthesean) virens (Sars), epitoky, polychaete, Baratang, Andaman Sea, 

Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. 

Corresponding author: 

Mohan PM 

Email Id: 

Web Address: 

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An International 

Scientific Research Journal 

Article Citation: 

Muruganantham M, Mohan PM, Karunakumari R and Vibha V. Ubare 

First report of Nereis (Neanthes) virens (Sars) an epitoky polychaete worm from 

Middle Strait, Baratang, Andaman Island, India 

Journal of Research in Biology (2015) 5(5): 1769-1774 

Dates: 

Received: 23 Jan 2015 Accepted: 08 Feb 2015 Published: 30 June 2015 

This article is governed by the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/ 

licenses/by/4.0), which gives permission for unrestricted use, non-commercial, distribution and 

reproduction in all medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 

1769-1774 | JRB | 2015 | Vol 5 | No 5 

www.jresearchbiology.com

Muruganantham et al., 2015 

INTRODUCTION 

The Nereis virens is commonly known as sand 

worm and king ragworm which is used as bait for fishes. 

This species belongs to a group of polychaete worm 

which has a distinct head with sensory organs and well 

developed parapodia (Westheide et al., 1999). The pair 

of chitinous jaws and many small denticles on the 

eversible proboscis of Nereis virens are used for grasping 

the prey (Gong 2003). The Nereis virens is of potential 

research significance; it can be cultured and maintained 

in the laboratory (Goerke 1971, 1984; Kristensen, 1984). 

In estuarine food web this species serves both as predator 

and prey and is thus an important component of this eco 

system (Heip and Herman 1979). Further, it is also a 

potential prey in the marine food webs and the shore 

birds Gull and Turns are often dependent on this worm 

(Spaans 1971; Shklyarevich 1979). This sand worms are 

also used in recreational fisheries for black fish, blue 

fish, bluke, pogy, weak fish, sea bass, striped bass, spot 

fish and flounder fish on Atlantic Gulf and Pacific coasts 

(Creaser et al., 1983) as a bait. Large amount of marine 

polychaete Nereis virens are imported to California from 

the U.S east coast as fishing bait (Cohen 2001). 

Moreover, Nereis virens and Nereis caeca polychaete 

annelids play an important role in the reworking of 

fluorescent particles, with in these the Nereis virens carry 

particles to their burrows (Piot et al., 2008). 

Nereis virens is an important species of estuarine 

sediments and also capable of surviving in high 

polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) envrionment 

Table 1 Physico-chemical parameters 

of the seawater 

Parameters Surface 05 m 10 m 15 m 

Temperature-°C 28.67 28.58 28.56 28.53 

Dissolved Oxygen-ml/L 05.49 05.01 04.87 04.76 

pH 08.76 08.79 08.74 08.72 

Salinity-PSU 31.94 32.60 32.82 32.90 

ORP-mv -232 -234 -235 -237 

Turbidity - NTU 01.60 01.00 01.70 19.70 

(Jorgensen, 2005). It is a semelparous polychaete and 

dies soon after reproduction (Bass and Brafield, 1972; 

Olive et al., 1998). During sexual maturation (epitoky), 

the species Nereis virens is characterized by behavioral, 

morphological and physiological changes which enforces 

the benthic worms for a brief pelagic life and then the 

mature male leaves their burrows to swarm and devoted 

for mating (Brafield and Chapman, 1967; Bass and 

Brafield, 1972; Snow and Marsden, 1974; Dean, 1978; 

Creaser and Cliffered, 1982; Wilson and Ruff, 1988). 

The enzymatic changes observed are likely related to the 

metabolic adjustment required to support higher level 

swimming abilities (Goerke, 1979; Hebert et al., 2008). 

As reported by Kristensen (1984) Nereis virens are 

known to exhibit spawning synchronous with new moon 

during the month of April with the water temperature of 

10 o c - 12°C. The low seawater temperature is favourable 

than the optimum temperature and strong selective 

pressure favours for reproduction of semelparous 

polychaete Nereis virens (Lewis et al., 2003). Nereis 

virens is an omnivorous animal (Fauchald and Jumars 

1979) however, as reported by Goerke (1971) and 

Theede et al., (1973) it is herbivore that lives on 

Woods Hole. 

Study Area 

Baratang Island is located about 92 km North of 

Port Blair (Fig. 1). This Island is approximately 19 km 

long and 5 km wide with moderately high relief covered 

with thick forest (Rajshekhar, 1992) as well as known for 

its active mud valcano (Srinivasan, 1986). The middle 

strait separates Port Blair from Baratang Island. This 

strait is a major connectivity of the two major seas which 

are designated as Bay of Bengal in the western side and 

Andaman Sea on the eastern side of this Island. The role 

of tidal current is found to be an important factor in this 

strait; where during high tide the water current moves 

towards Andaman Sea where as during low tide the 

water is pushed towards the Bay of Bengal. The current 

speed is considered to be approximately 2-3 nautical 

1770 Journal of Research in Biology (2015) 5(5):1769-1774


Fig. 1 Location of the Study Area 

miles. The width of the strait is 200 to 250 m in an 

average. The mangroves are densely covered on both the 

sides along the strait. The sediment type is muddy and 

clayey with debris. 

MATERIAL AND METHODS 

The physico-chemical parameters such as 

temperature, salinity, pH, Eh, dissolved Oxygen (DO), 

turbidity and depth are measured at in situ by using 

Quanta Hydrolab equipment. The zooplankton samples 

were collected using the standard Indian Ocean 

Zooplankton net, hauling through the motorized dingy. 

The dingy were operated at two nautical mile speed for 

10 minutes and the flow meter reading were noted at 

start and end of the collection. The observed worms in 

the zooplankton samples were separated out and 

preserved in 10% formaldehyde solution. The samples 

were brought to the laboratory and studies for structural 

and morphological characters were done using 

stereoscopic binocular microscope (Nikon SMZ 1500). 

Photographs were taken using Nikon Cool Pix p6000 

Microscopic camera. The samples were preserved in a 

glass container and the specimens were kept for 

reference purpose. 

Systematic position of the studied polychaete (****) 

Kingdom: Animalia 

Phylum: Annelida 

Class: Polychaeta (Grube 1850) 

Order: Phyllodocida (Williams1815( 

Family: Nereida (Blainville 1818) 

Genus: Nereis (Linnaeus 1758) 

Species: Virens (Sars 1835) 

Diagnostic Features (Fig. 2, 3 and 4) 

Two pair of globular eyes are present on the head, 

eyes are located at the side vie 

Mouth is eversible 

Above the mouth a pair of antennae are present 

Two pair of tentacular cirri present on the 

prostomium at each side 

A pair of fleshy palps are present on the prostomium 

A pair of jaws are present which consists of denticles 

The paragnaths present as a rows on the eversible 

proboscis 

Total length of the specimen is 2.5 cm to 3.5 cm 

The width is 0.4 cm without parapodium and 0.6 cm 

including parapodium 

The total segments of the (3.5 cm length) specimen is 

more than 120 

The first two segments consist of two pair of tubular 

cirri 

From the third segment onwards five tubular cirri in 

each side with simple parapodia are present 

Below 19 th segments there are complex parapodium 

with a pair of notopodial cirri 

A pair of anal cirri are also present 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: 

Even though continuous monitoring of this study 

area was done for last five years i.e. July 2011 to January 

2015, this occurrence of Nereis virens was found only in 

the period of July 2014. The surface waters of the strait 

Journal of Research in Biology (2015) 5(5): 1769-1774 1771


Figure 2. Nereis virens Dorsal View 

Figure 3. Nereis virens Ventral View 

had countless number of individuals with very rapid 

swimming activities. The collected samples were 

examined in the laboratory and confirmed as the 

semelparous polychaete Nereis virens (Sars). According 

to the Presvions reports, this semelparous polychaete 

Nereis virens is mostly inhabituated in the temperate 

regions. According to Kristensen (1984) this species 

required a temperature of 10 o C to 20°C for spawning. 

However, during the day of collection in the present 

study the temperature of the surface water was 28.67°C, 

salinity was 31.94 PSU (Table 1) and also a new moon 

day. Creaser and Cliffered (1984) and Wilson and Ruff 

(1989) reported that the male species of Nereis virens 

would swarm on the water column at new moon days. 

However, in the Indian Ocean, especially in Andaman 

Sea, of Andaman and Nicobar regions no such early 

reports on semelparous polychaete - Nereis virens were 

found. This information was further confirmed by the 

available reports of Soota and Rao (1977), Soota et al., 

(1980) and Rajasekaran and Fernando (2012) who had 

reported one hundred and ninety one species of 

polychaete from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 

Aungtonya et al., (2002) formulated a data base and 

check list of polychaetes from Puckhet Marine 

Biological Center, Thailand, and Idrish and Arshad 

(2013) also produced a check list of polychaetous 

Figure 4. Microscopic photo of Nereis virens 10x7.8 X 

Figure 5. Head with eversible Proboscis 

1772 Journal of Research in Biology (2015) 5(5):1769-1774


Department of Ocean Studies and Marine Biology and 

Other authorities of Pondicherry University are 

acknowledged to provide facilities for executing this 

project. 

Figure 6 Head with Denticular Jaws and Paraganths 

annelids in Malaysia, which also did not include this 

species in these waters. 

Based on the above inferences, it is suspected 

that the cold deep waters may have been upwelled 

anywhere nearby the study area and the warming up of 

water may lead to the epitoky condition of Nereis Virens. 

This was further supported by the reports of 

Sachithanandam et al., (2013) who stated that deep cold 

waters was noticed in the north of the study region. Cold 

ballistic waters from the international ships could also be 

a cause for this sudden appearance of epitoky of Nereis 

virens. 

CONCLUSION 

The present study could be concluded that the 

studied polychaete species Nereis virens is a first report 

on this part of the ocean waters. Further, it is also be 

considered as a invasive species to the Andaman water 

from the deep cold waters occurred from nearby waters 

or by ship’s ballistic discharge. 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 

The authors thank the Central Marine Living 

Resources and Ecology, Ministry of Earth Science, 

Kochi for funding this work (MOES/CMLRE/10-IT 

IS/5/2012, Date: 01/10/2012). Also the Head, 

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