Marine Species Identification Portal : Polydora cornuta

Bosc, 1802

Description:
Body slender.
Prostomium anteriorly more or less deeply incised, with four eyes, a small median antenna and posteriorly with a caruncle reaching chaetiger 3-4. Two long palps present.
First notopodium without chaetae.
Both postchaetal lobes in anterior segments cirriform, posteriorly smaller.
Fifth chaetiger with 6-11 modified chaetae and accessory chaetae with brush-like tips in a row. Modified chaetae thick and blunt, with a subdistal tooth. 7th and following neuropodia with 8-15 strongly bent hooded hooks, in posterior segments without accessory capillaries. Notopodia with winged capillaries only (P. cornuta-chaetae).
Gills from chaetiger 7 to nearly end of body.
Pygidium with dorsally incised funnel.

Size:
Up to 30 mm for 90 segments.

Colour:
White with brown pigment on the caruncle.

Habitat:
Lives in up to 40 mm long and 1 mm broad tubes in mud, sand or mixed bottoms to about 50 m. Tubes lined with slime. In life, the palps protrude from the tube and wave vigorously.

Distribution:
North Sea to Baltic Sea, North Atlantic, North Pacific, Argentine, Australia.

Polydora cornuta