Diopatra cuprea
species of annelid
Diopatra cuprea, commonly known as the plumed worm, decorator worm or sometimes ornate worm, is a species of polychaete worm in the family Onuphidae, first described by the French entomologist Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc in 1802. It is native to the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.
Description
Diopatra cuprea inhabits a parchment-like tube made of a mucous polysaccharide material, the tip of which projects from the sediment in which the rest of the tube is buried. The tube acts as a chimney; the lower part may be a metre long and is smooth with grains of sediment adhering to it. The upper part resembles an inverted "J", with the outer surface being reinforced with shell fragments and tiny pebbles which are cemented in the style of an overlapping mosaic. This part is extended by the worm if siltation threatens to bury it, and the tube occasionally has two entrances.
When these tubes are no longer occupied, they get washed out of the seabed and sometimes get deposited on the strand-line. The living worm is very colourful; its reddish-brown segmented body is iridescent, and often dotted with grey. Each segment bears a pair of yellowish-brown, oar-like parapodia with green speckles, which contrast with the bright red gills or "plumes" which endow the worm with its more common name, resembling a Christmas tree in rare cases. The occipital tentacles are covered with neat longitudinal rows of papillae of different sizes.
“Diopatra cuprea” enters the record as species of annelid. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Diopatra, cuprea and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Diopatra cuprea” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Diopatra, cuprea and species provides the most credible route into that argument.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2854980. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1802.
A general summary may omit uncertainty, sample limits or methodological disagreement that is explicit in the technical record. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Check terminology, classification and the date of the cited evidence. Scientific names and technical consensus can change while older records retain historical value.
- Current terminology
- Classification context
- Finding cited technical literature
Primary datasets, specimen catalogues, standards bodies and the most recent peer-reviewed literature.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Diopatra cuprea”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Diopatra cuprea primary sources, Diopatra cuprea archive and Diopatra research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Diopatra cuprea”?
- Has classification or technical consensus changed since the cited source?
- Which observation, specimen, dataset or publication supports the account?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Diopatra cuprea” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.