Lepidasthenia


Lepidasthenia is a genus of marine Polychaete worms belonging to the family Polynoidae. Species of Lepidasthenia are found worldwide to depths of about 1200 m but are more common in shallower water.

Description

Lepidasthenia species are long-bodied scale worms with up to 150 segments and 50 to 100 or more pairs of elytra. The elytra are smooth and lack marginal papillae. Elytra are small, do not overlap, and leave the dorsal region of the body mostly uncovered; on the posterior region there is one pair of elytra every three segments. The lateral antennae are inserted terminally on the distal ends of the bilobed prostomium. The lateral and median antennae are smooth. The first segment is without chaetae. Notopodia are reduced and notochaetae are few or more often absent. The neuropodia are deeply divided vertically into anterior and posterior lobes. The neurochaetae may be bidentate or unidentate and are few.

Biology

Lepidasthenia is one of many genera in the family that contain bioluminescent species.

Species

There are 42 valid species of Lepidasthenia as of September 2020: