(O.F. Müller, 1766)
Description:
Body cylindrical, anteriorly flattened and broad, up to 90 segments.
Prostomium triangular with an incision anteriorly and a caruncle reaching chaetiger 1 or 2. Four eyes on the posterior part of the prostomium in a trapezoid arrangement; anterior pair largest. Two, short and thick palps.
Notopodial postchaetal lobes on anterior chaetigers oval to broadly rounded, in mid-body high and narraw, in posterior region becoming short and oval.
Neuropodial postchaetal lobes rectangular, smaller than notopodial ones.
Gills long, finger-shaped, from chaetiger 1 to near and of body; only in anterior segments partially fused with postchaetal lobes. The first gill almost as long as the other ones.
All parapodia with finely winged capillary chaetae; from chaetiger 9-18, usually 10-11 also 9-10 bidentate hooded hooks and from chaetiger 17 onwards 1-3 spines in neuropodia.
Pygidium with four leaf-like to conical cirri, dorsal cirri longer than ventral ones.
Size:
Up to 18 mm for 55 segments.
Colour:
Living animal pink to salmon, with brown to black pigmentation dorsally on head and anterior segments.
Habitat:
Eulittoral to 400 m. Lives in tubes made of sand, on sandy or mixed bottoms.
Distribution:
Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic, Mediterranean, Black Sea, Red Sea, North Sea to Öresund.