Vejdovsky and Mrázek, 1903
Description
Medium-sized smooth pink worms. Prostomium short conical, separated by a distinct furrow from I, in alcohol-preserved specimens. Body wall delicate, with deep intersegmental furrows on tail when preserved. No hair or pectinate chaetae. Ordinary bifid crotchets in anterior bundles by 5-9, 75-135 µm long; teeth of about equal length but upper tooth thinner. Ventral bundles of X with single 9-12 µm thick spermathecal chaetae, 70-162 µm long; their distal portion with longitudinal groove and slightly curved tip. In XI single bifid penial chaetae per bundle, 120-140 µm long, with distal tooth longer, thinner and straighter. Dark chloragogen tissue covering oesophagus from VI on. Length 15-40 mm, segment number up to 95. Can be confused with the species of Limnodrilus when young but differing from them in shorter, softer and fragile body, and conical prostomium separated distinctly from I, in preserved specimens.
Burrowing in sediment.
Distribution
Western Palaearctic, region of Great Lakes in North America.
Ecology
In freshwater, particularly on sandy sediment in rivers.
Reproduction
Sexual only. Eggs laid in cocoons attached to substratum and covered with very thick layer of foreign particles; the thinner appendage of cocoon prolonged.
Literature
Vejdovsky and Mrázek, 1903: 1-7, Fig. 1-10; Brinkhurst and Jamieson, 1971: 488-489, Fig. 8.11A-C; Chekanovskaya, 1981: 327-328, Fig. 160; Hrabe, 1981: 76-77, Pl. 12 Figs 15-19; Kasprzak, 1981: 155-156, Figs 521-523; Holmquist, 1985: 343-345, Figs 15, 20A-C, 23H, 24G.