(M. Sars, 1872)

Description:
Body long, slender and cylindrical. Prostomium elongated, pointed, without an obvious caruncle; the posterior point free and reaching the middle of the first chaetiger. 4 eyes in trapezoid arrangement.
Notopodial postchaetal lobes in the segments with gills big, triangular, leaf-like, on the first and posterior chaetigers smaller, oval.
Anterior parapodia with winged capillaries only. From neuropodium 29-35 onwards also 4-5 hooks present. From notopodium 35-42 onwards 3-5 hooks present (A. oxycephala-detail).
Gills completely separate from the postchaetal lobes, 20-30 pairs, starting at chaetiger 2.
Pygidium with 6-8 short cirri.

Size:
Up to 100 mm for 200 segments.

Colour:
Anterior part yellowish or greenish, posteriorly darker.

Habitat:
Eulittoral to 70 m.

Distribution:
North Sea to Öresund, Atlantic, Mediterranean, Black Sea Pacific and Indian Ocean.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Annelida
Class Polychaeta
Order Spionida
Family Spionidae
Genus Aonides
Species Aonides oxycephala

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Aonides oxycephala (Sars, 1862)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Nerine oxcephala Sars, 1872
Scolecolepis oxycephala Malm, 1874
Spio oxycephala Levinsen, 1883
Aonides oxycephala Söderström, 1920

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

Imajima, M., 1961. Polychaetous Annelids collected off the west coast of Kamchatka. Publ. Seto Mar. Biol. Lab., 9(1): 81-102.

Kirkegaard, J.B., 1996. Havbørsteorme II. Danmarks Fauna, 86: 1-451.

No distribution map was available at OBIS the last time we checked. Retry now.

You can continue searching for Aonides oxycephala on one of these Web sites:

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

Google | Yahoo | MSN | Wikipedia