| Armandia maculata (Webster, 1884). Family Opheliidae | ||||
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Armandia maculata [Click photo for picture page] 
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| Habitat: | Intertidal. Subtidal. Soft shore. Bays and sheltered beaches. Fine sand to sandy mud. Infaunal. Depth range: 0-1000 (m). Salinity regime: Estuary-like variation. Microhabitat: Low tide sands, including eel grass beds. Tube: No tube. | |||
| Occurrence: | Consistently occurring, sometimes common. Density: 100 (m2).
Distribution in NZ: Throughout New Zealand. | |||
| Feeding guild: | Subsurface deposit-feeding/herbivore. | |||
| Diagnosis: | Genus Armandia in Family Opheliidae.
Slender, sleek, shiny worms of 29-30 chaetigers, with characteristic lateral and ventral longitudinal grooves above and below the muscular ridge supporting the parapodia. A conical prostomium slightly bulbed at the tip, bears a lateral eyespot preceding an eversible nuchal lobe. Single branchial filaments present from chaetiger 2 to 26, and red lateral eyespots present anterior to parapodia on the 10 chaetigers from 7 to 17. Chaetae are all slender capillaries, longer in the notopodial fascicle, mounted on small parapodia with minute lobes. A ventral anal cirrus present, extending from a funnel with fringing cirri. Colour: Cream coloured and in life somewhat iridescent. Maximum size: 25 mm total length, 1.5 mm body width, for 30 chaetigers. |
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| Notable aspect: | Lateral eyespots. In life this species is superficially reminiscent of a large, thick, stiffened nematode (except nematodes are unsegmented). | |||
| Comparisons: | Armandia maculata is not readily confusable with any other shore species. In Euzonus otagoensis the branchiae are bifurcate (i.e. paired) on each segment. | |||
| Taxonomy: | The common NZ Armandia has an unverified, but long-established name first applied by Augener (1923). As this species is potentially a cryptogenic, man-assisted arrival, perhaps it could be the same as the name Augener uses, a species first described from Bermuda, Armandia maculata. However, all Armandia are very similar, and A.maculata may be a synonym of an older name. | |||
| Distribution: | Bermuda, New Zealand | |||
| Biology: | Benham (1950:23) wondered why a sand-burrowing animal had a series of eyes. However, as the species is frequently found free-swimming at night, the light-detectors can be used then. Worms are photopositive at night, and photonegative during the day. Armandia maculata is a good coloniser and explorer and is found in small numbers wherever there is sandy sediment and also on silted epifauna and algae. | |||
| Best References: | Biology: No recommendation. Taxonomy: No recommendation. | |||
| More information: |
Synonyms, NZ records | Original figures | Original description details | |
| Genus diagnosis | More pictures | Further references (biology, etc) | Family Opheliidae | |
| Internet sources: |
GOOGLE Search | AlltheWeb Search | CISTI | CBIF BiOSC Gateway | GOBASE Molecular | GenBank | Genus only in GenBank | | |||
| Genus only in Ubio Taxonomic Name Server | PubMed | Scirus | Zoological Record | | ||||
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