Kinberg, 1865
Description:
Body elongate, with numerous segments and with an iridescent cuticle. Prostomium oval, with two globular ventral palps and two oval frontal palps. Five antennae with annulated basal region. With or without eyes.
Peristomium one ring, with or without a pair of peristomial cirri.
Parapodia with single lobes (notopodia reduced to a dorsal cirrus and a few aciculae). Dorsal cirri slender and cylindrical; ventral cirri of anterior parapodia slender and cylindrical, the others transformed to cushionlike glandular pads.
First few parapodia more or less modified, enlarged and directed anteriorly, without tentacular cirri.
Chaetae capillary and compound. Compound chaetae in anterior chaetigers only. Dorsal and ventral cirri present.
Pygidium with two long cirri and two very short, ventral, peg-like structures or with only two or four similar cirri.
The strong, muscular proboscis with a jaw apparatus consisting of two mandibles and seven or nine maxillae.
Tubicolous. Tubes are constructed of parchment-like material secreted by the worm, with or without foreign particles embedded in the outer surface. The tube may be constructed vertically in the sediment with one opening above the surface or it may be attached under stones or other hard substrata. The animal protrudes the anterior part of its body out of the tube to take dead amphipods or other small animals with its jaws, or to catch planktonic forms using its long antennae. When disturbed, the worm retracts rapidly. Some onuphids live upon the surface of the bottom and crawl about dragging the tube in the same way as caddis larvae (Onuphidae).
After: George and Hartmann-Schröder, 1985.
For identification to species level, jump to the Picture key: Page 67: Onuphidae
The following taxa of this family occur in the region:
Genus Hyalinoecia
Subfamily Hyalinoecinae
Genus Nothria
Subfamily Onuphinae
Genus Paradiopatra
Hyalinoecia tubicola
Nothria conchylega
Paradiopatra fiordica
Paradiopatra quadricuspis