Description: Body long and slender. Prostomium with four eyes and two frontal horns. Caruncle reaching chaetiger 2. Notopodialpostchaetal lobes in anterior segments fused to gills to about half way, posteriorly only basally. Anterior parapodia with capillaries only. From neuropodium 20-28 onwards also 7-12 bidentatehooks (M. tetracerus-detail). Gills starting at chaetiger 1. They are quite small on the first segment, become longer towards the posterior end, but never reach the mid-line of the body. Pygidium with 6-8 cirri.
Size: Up to 40 mm for 110 segments.
Colour: Salmon-pink.
Habitat: Eulittoral to 25 m. Also in brackish waters.
Distribution: Whole North Sea to Öresund, eastern North Atlantic to the Mediterranean and Black sea.
Kingdom Animalia Phylum Annelida Class Polychaeta Order Spionida Family Spionidae Genus Malacoceros Species Malacoceros tetracerus
