Slipper Mill Pond Preservation Association
Registered Charity No:277744

Ficopomatus Enigmaticus

Rock encrusted with tube worm casts [SMPPA]

The tube worm casts form a coral-like encrustation to stones and other underwater objects. An easy place to see a spectacular coating is to lean over the footpath parapet carefully, on the sides of the main A259 bridge piers.

Ficopomatus enigmaticus was first noticed in northern France in 1921 and was first recorded in London docks in 1922  This origin of this species is not clear. It occurs in waters of variable salinity in temperate or warm temperate areas of both northern and southern hemispheres, and it was possibly introduced from Australia . Its preferred habitat is brackish water as found in estuaries. It is probable that it arrived on being transported on ships hulls or on  commercial mollusc shells.

Dr. C. Thorp of Portsmouth University has been studying and logging the progress of the tube worm in the pond for .... years has and presented papers to international conferences on its life in the pond.

View down on the feeding tentacles at the mouth or the cast
Image from http://www.calacademy.org/research/izg/SFBay2K/Ficopomatus_enigmaticus.htm

See also:

• Joint Nature Conservation Committee summary has a long list of references
• N S Thomans & C H Thorp - Cyclical changes associated with the tube aggregates of Ficopomatus Enigmatus (Fauvel)