#4887 · 🪼 jellyfish, starfish, worms & co
Blow Lugworm
🇳🇱 Zeepier ·Arenicola marina
🪼 Jellyfish, starfish, worms & co 📍 in the Netherlands
10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
- 1. © Aimie · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 2. © Aimie · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 3. © Ulf Teghammar · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 4. © Stepan Markin · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 5. © Booner · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 6. © Sylvain Le Bris · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 7. © Heliana Teixeira · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 8. © adamchlo · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 9. © Auguste Le Roux · CC BY 4.0
- 10. © Biopix · CC BY-NC 4.0
what is it?
The lugworm or sandworm ( Arenicola marina ) is a large marine worm of the phylum Annelida. Its coiled castings are a familiar sight on a beach at low tide but the animal itself is rarely seen except by those who, from curiosity or to use as fishing bait, dig the worm out of the sand.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 26 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #41 most seen of the jellyfish, starfish, worms & co in NL.
- 2,641 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named in 1758 (268 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Blow Lugworm
- Nederlands
- Zeepier
- scientific name
- Arenicola marina
- class
- Polychaeta
- family
- Arenicolidae
- in NL
- native
- sightings in NL
- 26
- sightings in Europe
- 1,072
- sightings worldwide
- 2,641
- GBIF records in NL
- 8,856
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1758
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 208364, Wikidata Q21155, GBIF 5197443, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.