Green Worm (Eulalia viridis)

Eulalia feeding on living barnacle

This is a small worm, up to 15 centimetres long but is easily identified as it is active, crawling over the rocks in search of prey. Most food is dead or dying, as it scavenges for damaged animals like barnacles and mussels. It is one of the paddle worms and lives from the middle shore down. The sexes are separate and breed in the summer months leaving green jelly egg masses stuck to seaweed. The larvae are planktonic.

See also the close relative, Phyllodoce, the paddle worms