(Grube, 1855)
Description:
Body tapering slightly posteriorly. Dorsal and ventral surfaces smooth.
Prostomium round with two pairs of eyes, a short median antenna and a pair of lateral antennae. A pair of truncated smooth palps. A caruncle, about half the length of the prostomium, extends posteriorly. First segment bearing several broadened chaetae and a pair of dorsal and ventral tentacular cirri. On the first parapodial segment large dorsal and ventral cirri occur. On every following segment the dorsal cirri are smaller and situated in a bulbous cirrophore on the notopodia below the chaetae, ventral cirri project from large cirrophores below the neuropodia. Notopodia are indistinct mounds with broad chaetae obscuring the dorsal surface. Notopodial chaetae are broadened, with pointed tips, ribbed surfaces and serrated edges of two kinds: 1) central chaetae of each bundle symmetrical with tip in the middle; 2) others asymmetrical with tip nearest the central chaetae. Neuropodia extend beyond notopodia. Neuropodial chaetae compound with smooth shafts, fringed blades and unidentate tips.
Size:
Up to 12 mm for 40 chaetigers.
Colour:
Yellow with a reddish colouring on the parapodia.
Habitat:
Sublittoral among stones and encrusting organisms.
Distribution:
Shetland, Moray Firth (NE Scotland) and Clew Bay (Western Ireland). Also Mediterranean, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, Mozambique and Solomon Islands.