Savigny, 1822
Description:
Body of this scale-worm long of uniform width. Dorsal and ventral surfaces smooth.
On the dorsal surface there is a tubercle in the mid-line of each segment in the anterior region, from the 32nd segment the mid-line tubercle and the 2 dorsal tubercles form 3 prominent rows along the length of the body.
Prostomium bilobed, usually with a small rounded peak on each lobe, and median and lateral antennae, papillate or smooth, and a pair of palps. Two pairs of eyes, the anterior pair near the front of the prostomium, the posterior pair in front of the rear margin.
First segment bearing chaetae and a pair of dorsal and ventral tentacular cirri. A rounded facial tubercle present.
Scales overlap but do not cover the dorsal surface of the body. They occur on the anterior region only, on segments 1, 3, 4 and 6, then alternately to the 22nd and then on segments 25, 28 and 31. Scales are rounded, the margins are smooth or have a few very small cylindrical papillae and the surfaces have small round tubercles (P. scolopendrina-detail).
Notopodia are small mounds with a ventral acicular ligule and several chaetae. Notopodial chaetae with rows of spines and blunt cleft tips. Neuropodia well developed with an anterodorsal finger-shaped and a posterior rounded ligule. Neuropodial chaetae of 2 kinds: 1) upper 1 or 2 stout chaetae, wide with small spines and blunt tips, not present on all segments; 2) with rows of spines on the terminal part with bidentate tips (P. scolopendrina-parapodium).
Size:
Up to 120 mm for 100 chaetigers.
Colour:
Dark red on the dorsal surface, yellow to reddish brown on the ventral surface. A dark pigmented streak is usually visible across the dorsal surface of each segment in the anterior region giving a striped appearance.
Habitat:
Littoral to 60 m, often found in terebellid polychaete tubes.
Distribution:
Atlantic between Iceland and South Africa, Mediterranean, Adriatic, Black Sea, English Channel, northern North Sea up to Swedish Skagerrak coast.