(D'Udekem, 1854)
Description
Small or medium-sized, yellowish or brownish worms. Chaetae straight or slightly curved, with thicker distal portion, arranged in symmetrical fan-like bundles with distal ends in line, by 4-8 on dorsal and 5-10 on ventral side, 60-110 µm long, lacking at male pores in XII. Clitellum in 1/2 XI-1/2 XIII, with gland cells irregularly scattered. Internal characters: Pharyngeal glands in three pairs, on 4/5-6/7, without dorsal communication. Coelomocytes oval, finely granulated. Four intestinal pouches lying close to one another, resembling a kind of ventriculus divided by longitudinal septa, in VIII. Chloragogen cells on oesophagus beginning from VI. Blood colourless, dorsal blood vessel reaching backwards up to anterior portion of IX, with pulsating expansions in VII, VIII and IX. Spermathecae in V, almost tubular, with narrow ampulla and without diverticula, ental ducts communicating with oesophagus separately. 1-8 mature eggs present at a time, in clitellar region. Length 10-15 mm, segment number 30-50. Differing from Henlea perpusilla in chaetae, and from Henlea nasuta and other congeners in four intestinal pouches fused externally forming a common ventriculus.
Burrowing in sediment.
Distribution
Almost cosmopolitan.
Ecology
In soil, also in freshwater near the shore.
Reproduction
Sexual, with eggs laid in cocoons.
Literature
D'Udekem, 1854: 853; Leydig, 1864: 173; Friend, 1912a: 55, 59; Nielsen and Christensen, 1959: 62, Figs 50, 53, 57; Chekanovskaya, 1981: 375-376, Fig. 189; Kasprzak, 1986: 264-265, Figs 1028-1030.