---
title: Golden Fireworm (Chloeia flava)
scientific_name: Chloeia flava
common_name: Golden Fireworm
taxon: Fireworms
published: 2026-08-10T14:05:19.339Z
updated: 2026-08-10T14:33:48.607Z
tags: Golden Fireworm, Chloeia flava, Fireworms, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/worms/fireworms/golden-fireworm
---

# Golden Fireworm (*Chloeia flava*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Fireworms (*Amphinomidae*)
- **Size:** up to 8 cm
- **Depth:** 1-40 m
- **Diet:** Scavenger
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Soft sediment, burrowing by day
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous, Venomous

## How to recognise it

- oval flattened body, much broader than other fireworms
- golden to olive with a dark stripe and paired dark spots down the back
- long white bristles fanning out from both sides
- length up to 8 cm

A broad, oval fireworm, golden to olive, patterned with a dark median stripe and a row of paired dark spots down the back, with long white bristles fanning from both sides. At about 8 cm (3 in) it is shorter than its relatives but far wider, and the pattern makes it one of the more striking worms on sand.

It burrows in soft sediment by day and comes out at night to scavenge, sometimes swimming with an undulating motion that no other fireworm here manages. The bristles sting on the same principle - hollow, brittle and toxin-loaded - and the display of them when the animal is disturbed is worth reading as the warning it is. Because this species lives on open sediment rather than in rubble, it turns up on night dives over sand where nothing else seems to be happening.

## Also known as

- **Japanese:** ウミケムシ
- **Chinese:** 黃斑海毛蟲
- **Russian:** Золотистый огненный червь
- **KO:** 노란풀양목갯지렁이

## Scientific synonyms

- *Amphinome capillata* Bruguière, 1789
- *Aphrodita flava* Pallas, 1766
- *Chloeia capillata* (Bruguière, 1789)
- *Chloeia ceylonica* Grube, 1874
- *Chloeia natalensis* Day, 1951
- *Chloeia zeylonica* [auct. misspelling for ceylonica]
- *Thesmia flava* (Pallas, 1766)

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/worms/fireworms/golden-fireworm)*
*Updated: August 10, 2026*