| Status | | accepted |
Record
status | | Checked by Taxonomic Editor |
| Rank | | Genus |
| Parent | | Capitellidae Grube, 1862 |
| Sources | |
additional source: Fauchald, K. 1977. The polychaete worms, definitions and keys to the orders, families and genera. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County: Los Angeles, CA (USA) Science Series 28:1-188, available online at http://www.vliz.be/imisdocs/publications/123110.pdf [details]
additional source: ITIS database, available online at http://www.itis.gov [details]
|
Direct child
taxa
[show all] | | Species Capitella capitata (Fabricius, 1780)
Species Capitella minima Langerhans, 1881
|
| Environment | | marine, brackish, fresh, terrestrial |
| Fossil range | | recent only |
| Feedingtypes | |
deposit feeder: subsurface [details]
grazer [details]
|
| Links | | To GenBank
To ITIS
|
| Notes | |
Description: Two twin species can be found in the North Sea: Capitella capitata and Capitella minima. These two species are morphologically very hard to distinguish from each other, hence we speak of a Capitella complex. Capitella looks like earthworms because the exterior appendages (parapodia and gills) are very much reduced. The body is rather fragile and may contract and/or expand. The head is built rather simply and tapers conically. The colour of the living specimens is purple. [details]
Distribution: Barring a single exception the distribution of Capitella capitata/minima is limited to the near-coastal zone. In the 1976-1986 period the complex was found in the entire near-coastal zone with a low frequency of occurrence. In the 1994-2001 period the complex of species had a higher relative
occurence, but its distribution was limited to the western near-coastal zone. Its maximum density
increased from 40 ind./m2 in the 1976-1986 period to 700 ind./m2 in the 1994-2001 period. [details]
Habitat: Capitella capitata/minima is found in all sediment types present on the Belgian part of the North Sea. Although this species occurs in very fine to coarse sediments, it tends to prefer fine-grained sediments with a median grain size of 50-250 µm. Capitella capitata/minima is almost completely absent in sediments without mud. The maximum relative occurrence (> 60%) is observed in sediments with a mud content of 10-20% whereas C. capitata/minima has a relative occurrence of 20 to 30% in sediments with higher mud contents. [details]
|
| Image | |
|
| LSID | | urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:129211 |
Taxonomic
Edit history | |
|
| | |
[Taxonomic tree] [Distribution map] [Google] [Google scholar] [Google images] |
| | | Citation: Read, G.; Fauchald, K.; Bellan, G. (2013). Capitella Blainville, 1828. In: Read, G.; Fauchald, K. (Ed.) (2013) World Polychaeta database. Accessed through: Taxa used on the Macrobel website at http://www.vliz.be/Vmdcdata/macrobel/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=129211 on 2013-05-19 |
| | | |
