---
title: "Beadlet Anemone (Actinia equina) | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "A red blob on the rocks that picks fights with its neighbors using stinging blue spots."
image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/beadlet-anemone-1.webp"
published: "2026-10-11"
updated: "2026-10-12"
---
# Beadlet Anemone (*Actinia equina*)
> **Status**: Checked against 4 sources, listed under Sources below.
> **Tagline**: A red blob on the rocks that picks fights with its neighbors using stinging blue spots.
> **Soundtrack Vibe**: Hardcore Punk & Post-Hardcore // Refused, "New Noise"
> **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/35iLpqqQg4KrfYAzbvN1vH)
> **Vibe Match**: Out of the water a beadlet anemone pulls in and sits as a little red blob, and when its tentacles touch a neighbor's it stings. New Noise works the same switch: the band drops out to silence, then slams back in.
## Biological Superpowers & Stats
- **Taxonomy**: *Actinia equina*
- **Danger Level**: Low
- **Conservation Status**: Not Evaluated ([IUCN Red List](https://www.iucnredlist.org/))
- **Superpower**: A sting from its blue acrorhagi leads a neighbor to crawl away or drop off the rock
- **Habitat**: Hard surfaces on the shore, from western Europe and the Mediterranean to the west coast of Africa
- **Diet**: Almost anything it can catch, most often bivalves, insects and isopods
- **Tags**: cnidarian, tide-pool, ocean, carnivore
## Natural History & Behavior
## The anemone that fights its neighbors
A beadlet anemone sits on a rock and looks calm. It is not. *Actinia equina* is aggressive toward the anemones next to it, and a fight starts when the tentacles of two neighbors touch. The aggressor stings the victim with nematocysts, the stinging cells, carried in its acrorhagi: bright blue, wart-like spots that are often found near the top of the body column. The victim either crawls away or drops off the rock.
> **Toxin dose**
> Researchers purified three equinatoxins from this anemone. The dose that killed half of the mice tested was 23, 35 and 83 micrograms per kilogram for equinatoxins I, II and III, injected into a vein.
## A small body with a lot of tentacles
The base is up to 5 cm across and is usually wider than tall. Up to 192 tentacles sit in 6 circles, and they pull back in when the animal is disturbed. Color runs from red to brown, green and orange, and rust-red is the most common.
Animal Diversity Web gives a dry weight of 0.01 to 0.84 g. The average is 0.42 g. That is the weight with the water taken out, because an anemone in the water is mostly water it has absorbed.
## Life between the tides
The beadlet anemone lives all around the coasts of Britain and Ireland. Its range runs across western Europe and the Mediterranean, from the Arctic to the west coast of Africa, almost to the equator. It clings to hard surfaces from the upper to the lower shore and rarely goes subtidal, to about 20 m deep. It handles high temperatures and desiccation (drying out).
Out of the water it is always retracted and looks like a little red blob. It eats almost anything it can catch, and its toxins paralyze the prey and inhibit its ability to escape.
It has three main defenses: inflating its body column, detaching from the rock in a bid to escape predation, and releasing stinging cells with toxins. The grey sea slug still eats it, and somehow does not digest the most toxic stinging cells.
## Not the strawberry anemone
A lookalike, the strawberry anemone (*Actinia fragacea*), is plumper and red to reddish brown with greenish spots. Animal Diversity Web adds that genetic studies suggest the differently colored beadlets may be separate species.
## Frequently Asked Questions
### Can a beadlet anemone hurt people?
Animal Diversity Web says that contact with a human can cause great discomfort and pain, and that its nematocysts hold powerful toxins. *(Source: [Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan]())*
### What does a beadlet anemone eat?
Bivalve mollusks, insects and isopods are its most abundant foods, while snails, slugs, bryozoans and chitons supply the largest food mass. *(Source: [Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan]())*
### How does equinatoxin damage cells?
Equinatoxin II opens pores in cell membranes. In red blood cells that causes hemolysis, the breaking open of the cells, and the pores were estimated to have a functional radius of about 1.1 nm. *(Source: [Maček et al. 1994]())*
## Sources
1. [Actinia equina (beadlet anemone). Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan.]()
2. [Beadlet anemone (Actinia equina). MarLIN, the Marine Life Information Network.]()
3. [Maček & Lebez (1988). Isolation and characterization of three lethal and hemolytic toxins from the sea anemone Actinia equina L. Toxicon.]()
4. [Maček et al. (1994). Mechanism of action of equinatoxin II, a cytolysin from the sea anemone Actinia equina L. belonging to the family of actinoporins. Toxicology.]()
*Published October 11, 2026. Last updated October 12, 2026.*
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