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Sand mason worm
Lanice conchilega
Lanice conchilega are master builders, creating beautiful tubes rising from the substrate made of sand grains and shell fragments. At West Runton, their tubes can be seen in ones or twos and up to carpets of many thousands. The density of the population will determine how they feed - in low numbers, the worms will poke their tentacles out of the tube to feed on detritus settled on the substrate around them. In larger populations, L. conchilega become suspension feeders, catching particles of organic matter floating in the water moving by.