Spionidae

Spionidae
Scolelepis squamata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Annelida
Class: Polychaeta
Subclass: Palpata
Order: Canalipalpata
Suborder: Spionida
Family: Spionidae
Genera
  • Anaspio
  • Aonides
  • Apoprionospio
  • Aquilaspio
  • Aurospiro
  • Australospio
  • Boccardia
  • Boccardiella
  • Carazziella
  • Dispio
  • Laonice
  • Malacoceros
  • Marenzelleria
  • Mesospio
  • Microspio
  • Minuspio
  • Morants
  • Paraprionospio
  • Polybranchia
  • Polydora
  • Polydorella
  • Prionospio
  • Pseudomalacoceros
  • Pseudopolydora
  • Pygospio
  • Rhynchospio
  • Scolecolepides
  • Scolelepis
  • Spio
  • Spiophanes
  • Streblospio
  • Tripolydora

Spionidae is a family of marine worms within the Polychaeta. Spionids are selective deposit feeders that use their two grooved palps to locate prey. However, some spionids are capable of interface feeding, i.e. switching between deposit and suspension feeding.

Spionids produce tubes by cementing sand grains and detritus material with mucus produced by their glandular pouches. The Spionidae is one of the most studied polychaete families given their biological and commercial importance. Members of this family have been used in regeneration studies and some are capable of boring into calcareous substrate which has destructive implications for commercially important shellfish.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Spionidae.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/27/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.