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Pectinariidae			Family Pectinariidae (pectinariid/sand-mason worm) Terebellida (Annelida: Polychaeta)

About Family Pectinariidae polychaetes in New Zealand.
How to recognise the family:	Pectinariids are instantly recognisable by their tubes, which are elegant open-ended smooth cones built in one brittle layer of sand grains cemented edge to edge. The worm itself is matchingly tapered. The anterior end is a large flat cephalic plate from which project two sets of stout golden chaetae, the paleae. The numerous short tentacles around the mouth are surrounded by a tentacular membrane and there are two pairs of lateral tentacular cirri. Two pairs of lamellate red gills are present. Pectinariids are head-down, selective, subsurface deposit feeders. Adult size: To about 60 mm, tapering from the 10 mm wide head.
How to recognise the New Zealand genera:	Pectinaria is the only shallow-water genus. Petta occurs in very deep water and is distinct from Pectinaria in that its scaphe region (tail, see below) is not markedly demarcated ('set off') from the body and the cephalic veil is smooth.
Quick pick shore species:	The New Zealand inshore species Pectinaria australis Ehlers, 1904 has 16 chaetigers, all with capillary notochaetae, with a thin line of neurochaetal uncini on chaetigers 4-15. The body ends with the scaphe, a narrower body structure of ornamented segments set off at an angle, without chaetae apart from a set of about five pairs of small acicular hooks at its base.
Possible misidentifications:	None. Pectinariids are distinguishable from ampharetids and terebellids in the Terebellida group even when the characteristic tube is lost. The blunt plug-like head structure, the gills and the posterior scaphe are very distinctive, although the parapodia are somewhat similar to ampharetids. Worldwide there are comparatively few species and only a single species occurs in inshore New Zealand waters.
Distributions, lifestyle, and habitat:	Throughout New Zealand. Pectinaria australis is found from mid-intertidal on semi-protected shores and subtidally to the inner continental shelf. It occurs in medium to muddy sands.
Abundance:	Moderate, increasing to abundant in some organically enriched sediments.
Taxonomic note:	The family used to be known as the Amphictenidae. Petta assimilis McIntosh, 1885 occurs in deep water offshore of New Zealand.
References:	(Ehlers 1904: p56-58, P8.6-12), (Estcourt 1974: p283-290, f1-4), (Holthe 1986b: p17-28, f2-7), (Hutchings & Peart 2002) (Morton & Miller 1973: p500, f197.6, 203), (Wear 1966: p141-149, f1-7). (Full citations at Family pages literature cited list.)

Species in the guide:	Rock Species: None for this family.
	Sand Species: Pectinaria australis
	Shell Species: None for this family.
Internet  sources:	GOOGLE Search |   AlltheWeb Search | CISTI |   CBIF BiOSC Gateway | GOBASE Molecular | GenBank |
	Family in Ubio Taxonomic Name Server |  PubMed | Scirus | Zoological Record |
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The information provided by this page and by the pages of the "more information" links is held in a structured form for rapid and frequent updating and improvement. Descriptive text is compiled from a number of database fields, some of which may occasionally be empty. Last modified by G. Read, 25/07/2004    (dd/mm/yy)