(M. Sars, 1851)

Description:
Body long, a little flattened.
Prostomium rounded anteriorly, with two or four eyes and a median antenna. Caruncle reaching chaetiger 28-30.
Notopodial postchaetal lobes in the anterior segments with gills, broadly cirriform, with thin pointed tips, posteriorly becoming smaller.
Anterior parapodia with capillary chaetae only. From neuropodium 40-45 onwards also hooks present and on neuropodium 12-29 also a few spines. No notopodial hooks (L. cirrata-parapodium).
Gills completely separate from the postchaetal lobes, 35-44 pairs, starting at chaetiger 2.
Pygidium with 8-14 small cirri or papillae.

Size:
Up to 120 mm for 160 segments. Width 3-5 mm.

Colour:
Anteriorly yellowish, posteriorly brownish.

Habitat:
Sublittoral to very deep waters.

Distribution:
Arctic, possibly also northern North Sea.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Annelida
Class Polychaeta
Order Spionida
Family Spionidae
Genus Laonice
Species Laonice cirrata

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Laonice cirrata (M. Sars, 1851)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Nerine cirrata M. Sars, 1851; non Scolecolepis cirrata Moebius, 1874
Spio cirrata Michaelsen, 1896
Laonice cirrata Söderström, 1920

Hartmann-Schröder, G., 1996. Annelida, Borstenwürmer, Polychaeta. Tierwelt Deutschlands, 58: 1-648.

Nelson-Smith, A., Knight-Jones, P. & E.W. Knight-Jones, 1990. Annelida. In: Hayward, P.J. & J.S. Ryland (eds.). The Marine fauna of the British Isles and North-West Europe, vol I: 201-306.

Sikorski, A.V., Jirkov, L.A. & A.B. Tsetlin, 1988. The genus Laonice (Polychaeta: Spionidae) in the Arctic Ocean: evaluation of taxonomic characters and species composition. Zool. Zhurn., 67(6): 826-838.

You can continue searching for Laonice cirrata on one of these Web sites:

Fauna Europaea (animals) | IOPI (plants) | NCBI (genetic)

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