Pholoe Johnston, 1839

Genus Pholoe Johnston, 1839 View in CoL

Type species. Pholoe inornata Johnston, 1839

Diagnosis (After Pettibone 1992): Body with up to 90 segments. Elytra on segments 2, 4, 5, 7, in alternating segments up to segment 23, then on every segment until the end of the body. Dorsal tubercles present on segments without elytra. Elytra papillated. Without dorsal cirri and gills. Prostomium bilobed and tentaculophores fused with the prostomium. Prominent facial tubercle. Median antenna on the anterior region of the prostomium, inserted into a ceratophore without an auricle. Lateral antennae present or absent. Sometimes with two pairs of eyes, occasionally fused. Tentaculophores without chaetae. Palps robust. Second segment, or buccal segment, bearing the first pair of elytra, having biramous parapodia, and ventral oral cirri. Pharynx with 18 papillae and two pairs of jaws. All parapodia with a conical and acicular notopodial lobe, as well as the neuropodial lobe, the latter of which may have distal papillae. Notochaetae simple, capillary, spiny, and may be geniculate or straight. Neurochaetae compound, with spiny shafts and blades. Ventral cirri on all chaetigers. Pygidium with a pair of anal cirri.