📸 PhotoPhoto: This illustration was made by Citron You must credit this : Citron / CC-BY-SA-3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Bootlace worm
Lineus longissimus (Bootlace worm · Bootlace worm)
Not Evaluated (NE) on the IUCN Red List yet.
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Its usual body length of 5–15 m is about the length of a city bus (about 11–12 m), and individuals over 30 m are longer than a 25 m swimming pool lane (Comparison).
- 💡 MarLIN notes that this worm lies tangled like a knot under rocks on British shores. Its English name 'bootlace worm' means 'shoelace worm'.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The bootlace worm is the longest known species of ribbon worm (nemertean), with a thin, elongated body like a shoelace.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Its body is usually a slender 5 mm wide, and its rectangular head has deep grooves and a row of up to about 20 reddish-brown or black eyes on each side. Its body is highly extensible and has an eversible proboscis.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It is a predatory ribbon worm that catches prey with a proboscis secreting toxic neurotoxins. It lives tangled in coils under boulders on the lower shore, and in deeper water it also inhabits mud, sand, and gravel bottoms.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List: not evaluated (NE) — cross-checked with the Wikidata conservation-status entry
- • marinespecies.org — aphia.php
- • wikidata.org — Q134358
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Lineus longissimus.jpg
- • marlin.ac.uk — 2075
- • pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — PMC8593623
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — author not recorded · CC0 1.0
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.