Family MALDANIDAE

Praxillura maculata

Museums

Museum list

Regional Maps

Family MALDANIDAE

Bamboo Worms

Compiler and date details

Jan 2011 - P. Hutchings & M. Yerman, Australian Museum, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

24 July 2003

Introduction

Maldanids are often referred to as bamboo worms because of the similarity of their bodies to bamboo stems. They have a blunt head that lacks appendages, very long body segments and parapodia that are reduced to low ridges encircling the body. They are non-selective subsurface deposit feeders and live on sheltered sand flats, intertidally, subtidally and perhaps are most common and diverse in shelf depths. They vary considerably in size, from a few mm to several cms in length.

Figures of 8 genera and 13 species were given by Beesley et al. (2000: App. 1) for representation of the family in Australian waters, and 38 genera and 200+ species worldwide. The most comprehensive reviews of the family are now about 100 years old. This database includes 7 genera and 15 species.

See Rouse (2000) for detailed family treatment.

Database Notes

proof read against Day & Hutchings 1979 by RW; no subsequent records added
checked against DELTA CD, 2003 by RTJ

Diagnosis

General features. Body shape vermiform; segments numerous (more than about 15); segments strongly elongate in midbody; elongate body segments with distinct (but truncate) notopodia and neuropodial tori; regionation absent. Pygidium simple ring or cone, or plate-like. Pygidial appendages present; more than four cirri.
Head & head structures. Head discrete and compact, dorsal to mouth. Prostomium narrow, keel- or ridge-shaped (margins may be a raised rim). Eyes present; one pair, or multiple; situated on prostomium; without lenses. Palps absent. Nuchal organs indistinct paired dorsolateral patches (on either side of cephalic keel). Peristomial ring single, or double (rarely).
Pharynx & pharyngeal apparatus. Foregut a non-muscular axial proboscis, or a ventral pharyngeal organ; dorsolateral ciliated folds absent, or present.
Body segments & parapodia. First segment chaetigerous. First chaetiger with notochaetae only, or with neurochaetae only, or with both notochaetae and neurochaetae. Parapodia biramous with parapodial lobes absent or low; notopodial lobes represented by at least one chaetal lobe; neuropodial lobes low ridges (tori) (over much of body). Dorsal cirri absent. Ventral cirri absent. Branchiae absent.
Chaetae. Notochaetae present. Aciculae absent. Capillary chaetae hair-like; smooth, or spinose. Spines absent, or present only in one or a few anterior chaetigers; in neuropodia only; slightly curved and more-or-less smooth. Hooks present; with a subdistal beard (usually); occur in many chaetigers but only one ramus (neuropodia).
Tube & burrow. Tube membraneous.

The above description was generated from: 'C.J. Glasby & K. Fauchald (2002 onwards). POLiKEY. An information system for polychaete families and higher taxa: Version 1: September 2002.'
(See ABRS website: Online Resources: Polikey, for Version 2, released June 2003)