Pygospio elegans

pygospio worm

SPECIES

1. KingdomAnimalia
2. PhylumAnnelida
3. ClassPolychaeta
4. OrderSpionida
5. FamilySpionidae

Habitatmarine

"The spionid Pygospio elegans reproduces both sexually and asexually. Using scanning electron and bright field microscopy, we examined morphogenesis following asexual reproduction to determine how "lost" body regions were generated after a worm spontaneously divided. Asexual reproduction occurred through transverse fission and divided the parent work into 2 to 6 fragments (architomy). All fragments retained their original anterior-posterior polarity. Regeneration in all fragments followed a specific series of events: wound healing (day 1); extension of blastema to generate lost body regions-specifically, the head and thorax for posterior fragments and the tail and pygidium for anterior fragments (day 2-3#; segmentation (days 3-6); and differentiation of segment- or region-specific structures (days 4-8). this pattern occurred regardless of where the original division took place. Subsequent growth occurred through addition of terminal setigers anterior to the pygidium followed by differentiation of tail setigers into abdominal setigers, leaving the tail region about 6 to 10 setigers in size. Fragments containing the original head (original mouth intact, generally much larger fragment

via GBIF

🔬Museum specimens

Specimen records

1,753

With media

12

Family

Spionidae

Collections

CAS, CMN

Recorded in

United States, Canada