Yamaguchi, 1953
Description
Medium-sized smooth pink worms. Dorsal bundles consist of 2-8 bayonet-shaped hair chaetae, 120-160 µm long, and 5-10 crotchets, 70-88 µm long, with shorter upper tooth. In ventral bundles 5-11 crotchets. Dorsal and ventral crotchets similar, often revealing tiny intermediate tooth. Under very high magnification, more intermediate teeth can be visible but arranged in a transversal row, giving a broken appearance to chaeta. No modified penial chaetae, but ordinary bundles at male pores in X. Clitellum in 2/3IX-XI. Posterior end modified as unsegmented tube, without chaetae, acting as gill. Length 20-25 mm, segment number 40-135. Can be confused with Aulodrilus pluriseta when studied under low magnification; sometimes treated as a synonym of the latter. Transversal rows of intermediate teeth in crotchets serve as a specific character of Aulodrilus japonicus.
Burrowing in sediment.
Distribution
Japan, China, Central Europe.
Ecology
In freshwater, rare. Can build tube-like mud cases above mud surface, containing gill-like hind end.
Reproduction
Mostly asexual, by architomy (fragmentation). Sexual reproduction with eggs laid in cocoons.
Literature
Yamaguchi, 1953: 298-300; Hrabe, 1981: 70-72, Pl. 11 Figs 5-10; Finogenova and Arkhipova, 1994: 8-11, Figs 3, 6-10.