Audouin & Milne-Edwards, 1834
Description:
Body elongated and oval, convex dorsally.
Two large eyes dorsally and two smaller ones ventrally. A thick, cylindrical median antenna is inserted between the dorsal eyes. Two shorter lateral antennae are inserted ventrally. Mouth is ventral, flanked anteriorly by a pair of palps reduced to flattened cushions. Caruncle extending posteriorly to chaetiger 5. It is divided into three longitudinal lobes, the middle one as a projecting crest with ciliated bands down each side.
Notopodia spread across the dorsal surface leaving only a small bare region down the mid-line. Each notopodium with seven to nine dichotomously branching gills, whose terminal filaments are thickened and base stout. Two dorsal cirri.
Two kinds of notopodial chaetae projecting far above the gills: 1) smooth, very unequally forked chaetae and 2) shorter, unequally forked chaetae, the longer branch curved towards the shorter branch, with distinct serrations on inner edges (E. foliosa-parapodium). Ventral chaetae forked, smooth, the superior ones longer than the notopodial chaetae.
Size:
Up to 30 mm for 36 segments.
Colour:
Orange to red.
Habitat:
In mud, sand, gravel, stones, rocks and corals; from the intertidal zone to slope depths.
Distribution:
Northeast Atlantic to Mediterranean, Red Sea.