About Schizobranchia insignis Bush, 1905
Schizobranchia insignis Bush, 1905 is a marine feather duster worm. It has several common names, including the split-branch feather duster, split-plume feather duster, and the feather duster worm. This species ranges from Alaska to Central California, where it lives on pilings and rocks from the intertidal zone down to a depth of 46 meters. It is especially abundant on the undersides of wharves in Puget Sound, Washington, and on wharves at Boston Harbor marina. Mature specimens typically measure 10 to 20 centimeters in length, and 5 to 10 millimeters in diameter. They create whitish, pliable tubes, and their tentacular crown can be uniformly colored orange, red, mauve, tan, brown, grey, or green. Among sabellid worms found in the Pacific Northwest, S. insignis is unique because every one of its radioles is dichotomously branched at least once. By comparison, the radioles of Eudistylia polymorpha are not branched at all, and only a few of the radioles of E. vancouveri are branched.
