(Aiyer, 1930)
Description
Small transparent worms. No proboscis, no eyes. Dorsal bundles beginning from II, with 1-2 smooth hair chaetae, 92-255 µm long, and 1-2 needle chaetae, 39-79 µm long, sometimes with very short or even lacking upper tooth. In ventral bundles 2-5 chaetae, 39-61 µm long, those in II with proximal nodulus but the rest with distal nodulus; upper tooth becoming gradually shorter in posterior segments. Intestinal dilatation in VII. Transversal blood vessels in II-VII free. Length about 7 mm, segment number in the first zooid 20-28, in the entire worm 28. The arrangement of the anterior blood vessels, as well as the segment number distinguish this species from Pristinella amphibiotica, a congener with similar chaetae.
Crawling on substratum.
Distribution
Almost cosmopolitan
Ecology
In freshwater.
Reproduction
Mostly asexual, by paratomy (budding). Mature individuals and sexual reproduction rare or seasonal.
Literature
Aiyer, 1930: 21-23; Sperber, 1948: 213-215, Fig. 22B-E, Pl. XXI Fig. 3; Sperber, 1950: 74-75, Fig. 26C-E; Brinkhurst and Jamieson, 1971: 392-393, Fig. 7.22A-C; Chekanovskaya, 1981: 273, Fig. 131; Kasprzak, 1981: 101-102, Figs 231-239.