Quatrefages, 1866
Description:
The body is relatively short and thick, divided into three regions. The blunt anterior end bears two comb-like bundles of stout golden spines, palae, (used for digging), which cross in the mid-line; numerous prehensile tentacles (these are not retractile) surrounded by a tentacular membrane; two pairs of dorsal, branching gills present on segments 4 and 5. Segments 2 and 3 have cirri. Prostomium is reduced and fused to peristomium, which is represented by lips. Dorsal brim present.
The posterior (abdominal) region has 12-13 segments. Notopodia are short truncate cylinders with capillary chaetae. Neuropodia represented by tori with uncini in numerous rows. Abdominal region is of much the same thickness as the anterior region. Dorsal and ventral cirri absent.
Posterior end is a narrow, short, flattened scaphe. It is divided from the abdomen by a marked constriction and it is segmented. Scaphe lacks chaetae except a few spines on each side around its base (Pectinariidae)
The worm occupies a characteristic smooth, unattached tube, which is open at each end. It is constructed of a single layer of sand-grains or shell fragments, cemented together so that their edges meet as closely as possible. It lives in sediments at low water and below, usually on fairly exposed sandy beaches, head down and with the smaller end of the tube protruding from the surface (Pectinariidae-tube).
After: Fauchald and Rouse, 1997 and Hayward and Ryland, 1990.
For identification to species level, jump to the Picture key: Page 231: Pectinariidae
The following taxa of this family occur in the region:
Genus Pectinaria
Genus Petta
Pectinaria auricoma
Pectinaria belgica
Pectinaria granulata
Pectinaria hyperborea
Pectinaria koreni
Petta pusilla