Beadlet Anemone
The beadlet anemone (Actinia equina) is a red or green sea anemone of rocky shores in the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. At low tide it draws in its tentacles and looks like a blob of jelly.
The beadlet anemone (Actinia equina) is a red or green sea anemone of rocky shores in the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. At low tide it draws in its tentacles and looks like a blob of jelly.
🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Beadlet Anemone in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Cnidaria+Ctenophora lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.
Anemone Wars: Fighting With Blue Beads
Blue beads around the base of the tentacle crown (acrorhagi) are loaded with stinging cells. When a neighbor that is not a clone of itself comes too close, the anemone swells these beads and wipes them on the intruder, causing wounds. Clone mates are recognized and spared, so colonies of clones form with a no-man's land between them.
Surviving the Tide
Between tides the anemone retracts its tentacles to avoid drying out. It catches small prey such as shrimps and mussels with its stinging tentacles.
Live Young
The beadlet brood their young inside their bodies and release them as tiny anemones. See Starlet Sea Anemone.
Beadlet Anemone at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Actinia equina |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Cnidaria |
| Class | Anthozoa |
| Order | Actiniaria |
| Family | Actiniidae |
| Field Guide group | Cnidaria + Ctenophora (Radiata & Jellies) |
| Diagnostic feature (Field Guide) | Red jelly-like blob at low tide; ring of blue beads below its tentacles carries stinging cells used to fight neighbors. |
| IUCN Red List status | Least Concern (LC), assessed 2015 |
| Class | Anthozoa |
| Weapons | Acrorhagi with stinging cells |
See Also
- Starlet Sea Anemone — another sea anemone
- Ocellaris Clownfish — a fish that partners with anemones