Phylum Nemertea - ribbon worms

Unsegmented worms with elongate, thin, elastic bodies. These predatory worms possess a tubular proboscis nearly as long as their body that can be everted very quickly to ensnare prey. Nemerteans are common, but cryptic and often small in size. They inhabit algal holdfasts and other microhabitats with complex 3-dimensional structure where they can hide. 1,359 living species.

Tubulanus sexlineatus  (Griffin, 1898)
Phylum Nemertea, Class Palaeonemertea, Family Tubulanidae

Long thin body to 20 cm; dorsal surface dark brown with 5 narrow longitudinal white stripes broken by broad white bands encircling the body.

Uncommon; infrequently encountered stretched out across rock surfaces, but usually nestled in a transparent membranous tubes secreted in cryptic microhabitats such as kelp holdfasts & spatially complex masses of colonial invertebrates.

Geogr. Range: Sitka Alaska to southern California
Synonyms:
Similar species:

Image: bat star Patiria miniata