(Sars, 1860)
Description:
A scale-worm with an elliptical body. Dorsal and ventral surfaces smooth.
Prostomium bilobed, with a peak on each lobe, a median antenna, a pair of lateral antennae, and a pair of palps with 6 rows of papillae. Two pairs of eyes, the anterior pair near the line of greatest width and the posterior pair in front of the rear margin. First segment bearing 2-5 stout chaetae and a pair of dorsal and ventral tentacular cirri (E. nodosa-head). Scales overlap, completely covering the body. Scales thick, kidney-shaped, the outer margins fringed with papillae and surfaces covered with coarse, wart-like protuberances, with a row of large and medium spined tubercles on the posterior edge, and elsewhere bifid and multi-spired small tubercles (E. nodosa-scale). On segments with scales, small lobes are situated towards the dorsal mid-line. Notopodia are small mounds with a ventral acicular ligule, and numerous chaetae in regular rows. Notopodial chaetae stout with rows of spines and blunt tips. Neuropodia well developed with a dorsal acicular ligule and abundant chaetae in distinct rows (E. nodosa-parapodium). Neuropodial chaetae with several rows of spines on the swollen terminal end and unidentate tips.
Size:
Up to 90 mm for 37 chaetigers.
Colour:
Unknown.
Habitat:
Sublittoral to 1260 m, amongst algae or on hard bottoms. Reported as commensal with pagurid crustaceans on the Alaskan shelf.
Distribution:
Arctic, North Pacific, North Atlantic to English Channel, probably whole North Sea, Skagerrak, Kattegat, up to northern Öresund.