Biodiversity & Conservation

A bristleworm - Pygospio elegans

A bristleworm

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Distribution map

Pygospio elegans recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

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Pygospio elegans is not listed under any importance categories.

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy Taxon English term
Phylum Annelida Segmented worms e.g. ragworms, tubeworms & fanworms
Class Polychaeta Bristleworms, e.g. ragworms, scaleworms, paddleworms, fanworms and tubeworms
Authority Claparède, 1863
Recent synonyms None
Map icon Recorded Distribution in Britain and Ireland Found all around the British coast but possibly under-recorded in Ireland.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Found on sandy shores and mud flats, and in mud that has collected in rock crevices, from mid shore to sublittoral.
Text page icon Description A many segmented, tube-living worm up to 15 mm long. It is greenish or yellowish with a visible brown gut. The tube is long and flexible and covered with fine particles of sand or shell particles. There are two slender, mobile appendages from the head region.
Identifying features
  • A slender, segmented, tube-living worm up to 15 mm long.
  • The tube is long and flexible, covered with sand or shell fragments.
  • 2 thin, mobile palps on the head region.
Additional information icon Additional information

This review can be cited as follows:

Penny Avant 2005. Pygospio elegans. A bristleworm. Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme [on-line]. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [cited 25/05/2013]. Available from: <http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesinformation.php?speciesID=4227>