Panamic Fan Worm, Bispira monroi
Panamic Fan Worm, Bispira monroi. Underwater photograph taken in Bahía de Banderas, Puerta Vallarta, Jalisco, July 2026. Photograph and identification courtesy of Greg Timms, youtube.com/@CoralmasterdivesPuertoVallarta/videos.
Panamic Fan Worm, Bispira monroi. Underwater photograph taken in Zihuatanejo Bay, Guerrero, March 2018. Photograph courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuatanejo. Identification courtesy of Greg Timms, youtube.com/@CoralmasterdivesPuerto-Vallarta/videos.
Panamic Fan Worm, Bispira monroi. Underwater photograph taken in Zihuantanejo Bay, Guerrero, March 2020. Photograph courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuantanejo. Identifi-cation courtesy of Greg Timms, youtube.com/@CoralmasterdivesPuertoVallarta/videos.
The Panamic Fan Worm, Bispira monroi (Hartman, 1961), is a member of the Sabellidae Family of Feather Duster Worms. The Bispira Genus is one of forty-one genera in the Sabellidae Family, and there are twenty-eight species in the Bispira Genus. The Sabellidae Family is currently undergoing much needed taxonomic revision. Additionally, many species in the Sabellidae Family have been introduced to multiple locations, making range a less valuable tool in determining species identification. Positive identification of species in this family is difficult. As a result many identifications are stopped at at the genus level.
The Panamic Fan Worm photographed above is a beautiful specimen that exhibits the textbook structural morphology of a large, mature species. It has a heavily fused, crown-like funnel structure with a radiolar crown that is conspicuously multi-layered chalice-shaped and multi-tiereed and heavily spiraled or coiled at the base, creating a highly textured, tiered appearance rather than a simple flat circle. The radioles (tentacles) are neatly uniform and closely packed, stiff, and gracefully curve outward to form a deep filtering-feeding cup. The Monroi Panamic Fan Worm has an intricate pattern of alternating light and dark horizontal pigmented bands of bright translucent creamy-white and rich chocolate brown/organ pigmented squares set in a zig-zag pattern. These dark chevrons run in synchoronized rings all the way around the plume. They have a “Spikey” appearance with the sharp creamy white tips of the radiolar pinnules point outward. This multi-layered “pinecone” structure is highly characteristic of Bispira when it is fully expanded into a moderate current.
The Panamic Fan Worm has a thick, muddy, learthery organic tube emerging straight out of loose, sandy sediment on the seafloor – a structural hallmark of thie Bispira Genus when growing in open reef floors.
Synonym: Distylidia monroi