View source for Biology:Adyte assimilis

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{{Taxobox
| name = ''Adyte assimilis''
| regnum = [[Biology:Animal|Animal]]ia
| phylum = [[Biology:Annelid|Annelid]]a
| classis = Polychaeta
| ordo = [[Biology:Phyllodocida|Phyllodocida]]
| familia = [[Biology:Polynoidae|Polynoidae]]
| genus = ''[[Biology:Adyte|Adyte]]''
| species = '''''A. assimilis'''''
| binomial = ''Adyte assimilis''
| binomial_authority = (McIntosh, 1876)
| synonyms = * Hermadion assimile McIntosh, 1874
* Hermadion echini Giard, 1886
* Scalisetosus assimilis (Mc Intosh, 1900) <ref name=WoRMS>[http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=155007 World Register of Marine Species]</ref>
}}

'''''Adyte assimilis''''' is a marine polychaete scale worm in the family [[Biology:Polynoidae|Polynoidae]].

==Description==
''A. assimilis'' is colourless or yellowish, up to thirty millimetres long, and has a dark band running down its back. It has fifteen pairs of scales or [[Biology:Elytron (Annelida)|elytra]] which cover the length of the body. These are delicate, transparent and rounded and do not meet at the back.<ref name=CPG>John Barrett and C M Young, Collins Pocket Guide to the Sea Shore (1958) p.68</ref> The body is of uniform width with smooth dorsal and ventral surfaces. The prostomium has a median antenna and a pair of lateral antennae. There are a pair of palps and two pairs of eyes, the anterior pair on the line of greatest width, the posterior pair near the rear margin. The first segment bears chaetae and a pair of dorsal and ventral tentacular cirri.<ref name=Msip>[http://species-identification.org/species.php?species_group=macrobenthos_polychaeta&id=404 Marine species identification portal]</ref> There is a long posterior region without scales. The notosetae are at least as thick as the neurosetae, being smooth with few spines. The neurosetae have semilunar pockets, faintly bifid tips and faint serrations. The presetal neuropodial lobes are longer than the postsetal ones.<ref>[http://www.vliz.be/imisdocs/publications/123110.pdf The polychaete worms: definitions and keys to the orders, families and genera.]</ref>

==Distribution==
''A. assimilis'' is found in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea and the Bosporus, the English Channel and the North Sea.<ref name=Msip/>

==Biology==
''A. assimilis'' is widely distributed round the shores of Britain where it is found on the lower shore and always in association with the sea urchin, ''Echinus esculentus'', among whose spines it lives.<ref name=CPG/> It ranges from the littoral to the sublittoral zones and is often associated with [[Biology:Starfish|starfish]], [[Biology:Brittle star|brittle star]]s and [[Biology:Crinoid|feather stars]].<ref name=Msip/> It is an omnivore and both a scavenger and a predator.<ref name=WoRMS/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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[[Category:Phyllodocida]]

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