Christmas tree worm
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Christmas tree worms live in warm seas around the world.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Christmas tree worm
- Scientific name
- Spirobranchus giganteus
- Japanese name
- イバラカンザシ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Class
- Polychaeta
- Order
- Sabellida
- Family
- Serpulidae
- Genus
- Spirobranchus
When young, it settles on a coral and grows while building a tube to hold its body.
The coral grows around it, so just its brightly colored gills stick out from the coral.
Basic data
- Range
- Central Honshu southward and warm seas worldwide
Where the Christmas tree worm has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- イバラカンザシ
- 简体中文
- 大旋鳃虫
- 繁體中文
- 大旋鰓蟲
- Español
- Gusano árbol de Navidad
- Français
- Ver arbre de Noël
- Deutsch
- Weihnachtsbaumwurm
- Português (Brasil)
- Minhoca-da-Árvore-de-Natal
- Italiano
- Verme albero di Natale
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — イバラカンザシChecked: 2026-11-04
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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