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Phyllodocidae
Natural History
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Phyllodocids are benthic polychaetes, often brightly coloured or with distinctive pigmentation patterns in life. A few phyllodocids apparently scavenge dead organisms and one species is reportedly a deposit feeder, but most species are predators. Phyllodocids have been observed tracking mucous trails in order to locate prey species. Prey are captured (and probably sensed) using the eversible pharynx, which is ornamented with papillae of a variety of forms. Breedings swarms of Phyllodocidae are known for some species, but in most cases sexually mature adults are not morphologically different from asexual specimens.
Diversity
This interactive key follows the generic diagnoses of Pleijel (1991) and should allow identification of the 18 recognised genera of Phyllodocidae. Also included are 26 Australian phyllodocid species, based on published records and new material, especially from surveys of subtidal sediments in inshore bays (Port Phillip, Western Port, and Jervis Bays), from the continental shelf of eastern Bass Strait and collected from intertidal mud flats in Port Hedland, northwestern Western Australia. Some species nominally recorded from Australia are poorly known and are not included in the interactive key; these records are listed in the accompanying checklist, but require re-evaluation. Studies currently underway of Australian and New Zealand material will provide names for incompletely identified taxa and describe additional taxa not included in this interactive key (R.Wilson, in prep.).
Description | Identification
tips | Natural History | Diversity
| Checklist | References
| Interactive Key
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