(Johnston, 1839)

Description:
A scale-worm with a body of uniform width. Dorsal and ventral surfaces smooth.
Prostomium bilobed, with a peak on each lobe, a median antenna, a pair of lateral antennae, ventrally inserted, and a pair of palps. Two pairs of eyes, the anterior pair on the line of greatest width, the posterior pair near the rear margin.
First segment bearing chaetae and a pair of dorsal and ventral tentacular cirri. Scales overlap, covering the body. The first pair of scales are round, the rest oval to kidney-shaped, at least half of the margins fringed with short papillae, the surfaces with small tubercles and a row of larger tubercles on the outer border. Notopodia are small mounds with a ventral acicular ligule and many chaetae. Notopodial chaetae spinose with blunt tips.
Neuropodia well developed with an anterior ligule and chaetae. Neuropodial chaetae spinose with bidentate tips, a few in the lower position with unidentate tips (H. impar-detail).

Size:
Up to 25 mm for 40 chaetigers.

Colour:
Scales brownish, sometimes with one or more dark patches. Surface tubercles in these patches often with a halo of pale colour.

Habitat:
Littoral on rocky shores, sublittoral to 655 m on a variety of bottoms.

Distribution:
Arctic, North Atlantic up to the Mediterranean, English Channel, whole North Sea, Skagerrak, Kattegat, Öresund, Belts to Bay of Kiel.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Annelida
Class Polychaeta
Order Phyllodocida
Superfamily Aphroditoidea
Family Polynoidae
Genus Harmothoe
Species Harmothoe impar

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Harmothoe impar (Johnston, 1839)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Polynoe impar Johnston, 1839
Harmothoe abyssicola Bidenkap, 1894
Lepidonotus impar Johnston, 1865
Evarne impar McIntosh, 1900 part
Lagisca elizabethae Southern, 1914
Harmothoe impar McIntosh, 1900

Chambers, S.J. & A.I. Muir, 1997. Polychaetes: British Chrysopetaloidea, Pisionidea and Aphroditoidea. Synopses of the British Fauna (NS), 54: 1-202.

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 Harmothoe impar on one of these Web sites:

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

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