Friday 17 May
Ivell’s sea anemone (Edwardsia ivelli)
DATADEFICIENT
Ivell’s sea anemone fact file
- Description
- Biology
- Range
- Habitat
- Status
- Threats
- Conservation
- Find out more
- Glossary
- References
- Print factsheet
Ivell’s sea anemone description
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Cnidaria |
| Class | Anthozoa |
| Order | Actinaria |
| Family | Edwardsiidae |
| Genus | Edwardsia (1) |
A simple animal, the sea anemone is made up of a column with a mouth, used to take in food and expel waste, and several tentacles. In Ivell’s sea anemone, there are twelve transparent tentacles, nine in an outer ring lying flat on the substrate, and three in an inner ring, held vertically, or over the mouth. Each tentacle has a few stripes of cream colour across it (2).
TopIvell’s sea anemone biology
Sea anemones are largely sedentary, moving occasionally by creeping extremely slowly or by inflating slightly and allowing currents to move them. They feed by holding out their tentacles to catch passing food particles and transfering them to the mouth. Little is known of the habits of this species, other than it is a passive predator that captures its prey in its tentacles, lives in a burrow and is very wary. The only way one might see this elusive animal is by scooping up some sediment in a bucket, leaving it to stand for some time, and then carefully peering over the rim to catch the anemone unawares (4).
Ivell’s sea anemone was first discovered by Dick Manuel in 1975 when he and his colleague Professor Richard Ivell were examining Widewater for anemones. Manuel named the anemone after Prof Ivell, who has since returned to look for the anemone and to encourage the protection of the Widewater Lagoon (5).
TopIvell’s sea anemone range
Found only in the Widewater Lagoon in West Sussex, Ivell’s sea anemone may no longer be extant, having not been found since 1983 despite detailed searches (2).
More »
Species with a similar range
|
You can view distribution information for this species at the National Biodiversity Network Gateway. |
Ivell’s sea anemone habitat
Ivell’s sea anemone was found in an isolated saline lagoon, where it sheltered on the bottom in long burrows in deep, soft mud (2).
More »
Top
Species found in a similar habitat
Ivell’s sea anemone status
Ivell’s sea anemone is classified as Data Deficient (DD) on the IUCN Red List 2004 (1) and is protected under Schedule 5 of the UK’s Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (3).
Ivell’s sea anemone threats
The habitat of Ivell’s sea anemone is threatened by habitat degradation as a result of reduced seawater inflow from adjacent marshes. Pollution from nearby gardens following the run-off of pesticides and fertilisers has also caused reduced water quality (3).
TopIvell’s sea anemone conservation
Inclusion in the UK’s Biodiversity Action Plan scheme has resulted in the drafting of a management plan for Widewater Lagoon. The site has now been proposed as a priority Special Area of Conservation under the EC Habitats Directive. Plans to restore the site include the improvement of the water quality and quantity, and searches will continue for Ivell’s sea anemone, with plans for translocation if it is ever rediscovered (3).
|
View information on this species at the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre. |
|
The UK Biodiversity Action Plan for this species is available at UK BAP. |
|
|
There may be further information about this species available via the National Biodiversity Network Gateway. |
Authentication
This information is awaiting authentication by a species expert, and will be updated as soon as possible. If you are able to help please contact: arkive@wildscreen.org.ukTopReferences
- IUCN Red List (February, 2005)
http://www.redlist.org - Encyclopedia of Marine Life of Britain and Ireland (February, 2005)
http://www.habitas.org.uk/marinelife/species.asp?item=D13420 - UK BAP (February, 2005)
http://www.ukbap.org.uk/UKPlans.aspx?ID=276 - Curson, J. (2002) Pers. comm.
- Lancing Village (February, 2005)
http://lancingvillage.co.uk/nature/Widewater/ivelli.htm
More »Related species
Sign up to our newsletter
Get the latest wild news direct to your inbox.
Get involved
ARKive relies on its media donors to donate photos and videos. Can you help? There are plenty of other ways you can get involved too!
Wednesday 15 May
Guest Blog: Join Our SOS! Campaign to Help Polar Bears with Polar Bears International
Monday 13 May
X
Close
Close
Image credit
Ivell's sea anemone
© Richard Manuel / gettyimages.com
Getty Images
101 Bayham Street
London
NW1 0AG
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 800 376 7981
sales@gettyimages.com
http://www.gettyimages.com
X
Close
Close
Link to this photo
Embed this ARKive thumbnail link by copying and pasting the code below.
Terms of Use - The displayed thumbnail may be used as a link from your website to ARKive's online content for private, scientific, conservation or educational purposes only. It may NOT be used within Apps.
Read more about
X
Close
Close
MyARKive
MyARKive offers the scrapbook feature to signed-up members, allowing you to organize your favourite ARKive images and videos and share them with friends.
X
Close
Close
Terms and Conditions of Use of Materials
Copyright in this website and materials contained on this website (Material) belongs to Wildscreen or its licensors.
Visitors to this website (End Users) are entitled to:
- view the contents of, and Material on, the website;
- download and retain copies of the Material on their personal systems in digital form in low resolution for their own personal use;
- teachers, lecturers and students may incorporate the Material in their educational material (including, but not limited to, their lesson plans, presentations, worksheets and projects) in hard copy and digital format for use within a registered educational establishment, provided that the integrity of the Material is maintained and that copyright ownership and authorship is appropriately acknowledged by the End User.
End Users shall not copy or otherwise extract, alter or manipulate Material other than as permitted in these Terms and Conditions of Use of Materials.
Additional use of flagged material
Green flagged material 
Certain Material on this website (Licence 4 Material) displays a green flag next to the Material and is available for not-for-profit conservation or educational use. This material may be used by End Users, who are individuals or organisations that are in our opinion not-for-profit, for their not-for-profit conservation or not-for-profit educational purposes. Low resolution, watermarked images may be copied from this website by such End Users for such purposes. If you require high resolution or non-watermarked versions of the Material, please contact Wildscreen with details of your proposed use.
Creative commons material
Certain Material on this website has been licensed to Wildscreen under a Creative Commons Licence. These images are clearly marked with the Creative Commons buttons and may be used by End Users only in the way allowed by the specific Creative Commons Licence under which they have been submitted. Please see http://creativecommons.org for details.
Any other use
Please contact the copyright owners directly (copyright and contact details are shown for each media item) to negotiate terms and conditions for any use of Material other than those expressly permitted above. Please note that many of the contributors to ARKive are commercial operators and may request a fee for such use.
Save as permitted above, no person or organisation is permitted to incorporate any copyright material from this website into any other work or publication in any format (this includes but is not limited to: websites, Apps, CDs, DVDs, intranets, extranets, signage, digital communications or on printed materials for external or other distribution). Use of the Material for promotional, administrative or for-profit purposes is not permitted.