(Esmark, 1874)

Description:
Body long and slender.
Prostomium broadly rounded, without eyes. Two ovoid antennae and two palps of same shape. Peristomium and apodous segment of same length as following chaetigers. Segments without cilia.
Parapodium with short, rounded prechaetal lobe; bilobed postchaetal lobe slightly longer; with oval distal lobe. One acicula. Dorsal and ventral cirri short, triangular. Chaetae of three kinds: 1) ~12 slender simple smooth hooks; 2) 9-17 compound chaetae with short, smooth hooked blades; 3) 2-3 simple smooth distally blunt, chaetae (O. geryonicola-parapodium).
Two small thread-like pygidial cirri (O. geryonicola-posterior end).
Mandibles X-shaped, with toothed anterior margins. Maxillary carriers fused to each other and to smooth hooked basal maxillae. 3 (adults) to 13 pairs of toothed plates (maxillae) (O. geryonicola-detail).

Size:
Up to 140 mm for several hundred segments.

Colour:
White to yellowish.

Habitat:
Parasitic in the gill chambers of the brachyuran crab Geryon tridens .

Distribution:
Skagerrak and Kattegat.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Annelida
Class Polychaeta
Order Eunicida
Superfamily Eunicoidea
Family Dorvilleidae
Genus Ophryotrocha
Species Ophryotrocha geryonicola

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Ophryotrocha geryonicola (Esmark, 1878)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Eteonopsis geryonicola Esmark, 1874
Ophryotrocha geryonicola Hartmann-Schröder, 1971

George, J.D. & G. Hartmann-Schröder, 1985. Polychaetes: British Amphinomida, Spintherida and Eunicida. Synopses of the British Fauna (NS), 32: 1-221.

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

Kirkegaard, J.B., 1992. Havbørsteorme I. Danmarks Fauna, 83: 1-416.

You can continue searching for Ophryotrocha geryonicola on one of these Web sites:

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

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