Family IKEDIDAE Bock, 1942

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Introduction

Ikedids are large, the trunk reaching up to 400 mm long and 20 mm wide. The longitudinal musculature of body wall is reported to lie exterior to the circular musculature (Ikeda 1907) and is thickened to form bands (five in Ikeda taenioides). The proboscis is very long (up to 1 m in the extended state) and flat. Nephridia are very numerous (more than 200) and unpaired; the nephrostome is situated distally.

The family contains only one species, Ikeda taenioides (Ikeda, 1907) described from Japan. Edmonds (1987) tentatively identified a large echiuran from Gulf St Vincent, South Australis, as Ikeda spcies. Its trunk was 290 mm long and 7-11 mm wide. Its proboscis was 400 mm long, its surface marked with numerous, transverse brown to black bands. Five longitudinal bands are present in its body wall. Unfortunately, the nephridial and anal regions of the single specimen were badly damaged during the collection of the specimen.

General References

Edmonds, S.J. 1987. Echiurans from Australia (Echiura). Records of the South Australian Museum (Adelaide) 21(2): 119-138

Edmonds, S.J. 2000. Phylum Echiura. pp. 353-374 in Beesley, P.L., Ross, G.J.B. & Glasby, C.J. (eds). Polychaetes & Allies: The Southern Synthesis. Fauna of Australia Vol. 4A Polychaeta, Myzostomida, Pogonophora, Echiura, Sipuncula. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing Vol. 4 Part A xii 1-465 pp.

Ikeda, I. 1907. On three new and remarkable species of echiuroids (B. miyajimai, T. taenoides, T. elegans). Journal of the College of Science, Imperial University of Tokyo 21: 1-64

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