Artacama proboscidea Malmgren, 1866

Synonyms:
No synonyms.

Distinguishing characteristics
Head ventrally with a big, protrusive proboscis.
Three pairs of free filaments gills.

Species description
Body short and plump, tapering towards pygidium. Upper lip low, but distinct, folded. Lower lip inconspicuous. Peristomium ventrally forming a big, protrusive proboscis. Proboscis distally with numerous conspicuous papillae. Tentacles numerous, fine and short. Branchiae on segments 2-4. Each of the three pairs of them consisting of a number of free filaments. 17 thoracic segments with notopodia with capillary chaetae (starting on segment 4), the posterior 16 also with neuropodia with uncini. Thoracic uncini on low tori, abdominal uncini on tori with more or less developed leaf-like dorsal cirri. Pygidium without appendages. Tube - very loose, uniformly encrusted with
a thick layer of mud.

Size
Up to 82 mm.

Color
Alive yellowish pink to red, gills bright red, tentacles whitish.
In alcohol yellowish grey.

Habitat
Mainly on soft bottoms, pure or sand-mixed silt; rarely on clay or among benthic plants. Upper sublittoral to about 3000 m. Euhaline to mesohaline.

Mobility
Sedentary.

Feeding
Surface deposit feeder.
Facultative suspension feeder.

Life cycle

Distribution
Arctic shelfs, Anatarctic, subantarctic, northerns North Sea, Skagerrak, Kattegat, westerns Baltic Sea.