Golfingia vulgaris vulgaris (De Blainville, 1827)

A common cosmopolitan species dwelling in silt, mud and sand

Golfingia vulgaris

Golfingia vulgaris hooks

Golfingia vulgaris hooks detail

Synonymy
Sipunculus vulgaris de Blainville, 1827
Phascolosoma vulgare Keferstein, 1862

Distinguishing characteristics
Four retractors.
Introvert is shorter than the trunk with numerous tentacles and scattered, spinelike hooks.
Both ends of the trunk are heavy papillated.

Size
Common trunk length: 10-50 mm
Maximum trunk length: 200 mm

Color
The mid-trunk is smooth and white or gray or gray-yellow
Both ends of the trunk are darker than the mid trunk and heavy papillated

Habitat
Usually it inhabits silt, mud, different types of sand and clay in deep waters

Feeding
Deposit feeder

Life cycle
Trochophore larva

Distribution
In the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean. Absent from western Atlantic Ocean and rare in the eastern Pacific. From depths of 5 to 2000 m, but rare in the waters deeper than 500 m.

References

• Cutler EB (1994) The Sipuncula. Their Systematics, Biology, and Evolution. 1-453
• Cutler EB, Cutler NJ (1987) Revision of the genus Golfingia (Sipuncula:Golfingiidae). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 100:735-761
• Cutler EB, Murina VV (1977) On the sipunculan genus Golfingia Lankester, 1885. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 60:173-187
• Fischer W (1895) Die Gephyreen des Naturhistorschen Museums zu Hamburg. Abhaltungen aus dem Gebiet der Naturwissenschaften (Hamburg) 13:1-24
• Fischer W (1914) Wietere Mitteilungen uber die Gephyreen des Naturhistorischen (Zoologischen) Museums zu Hamburg. Jahrbuch der Hamburgischen Wissenschaftlichen Anstalten 31:1-28
• Gibbs PE (1973) On the genus Golfingia (Sipuncula) in the Plymouth area with a description of a new species. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 53:73-86
• Gibbs PE (2001) Sipunculans. Key and Notes for the Identification of British Species, Synopses of the British Fauna (New Series). Crothers J.H.// Hayward P.J.
• Gibbs PE, Cutler EB (1987) A classification of phylum Sipuncula. Bulletin of the British Museum Natural History Zoology 52:43-58
• Kędra M, Murina GV (2007) The sipunculan fauna of Svalbard. Polar Research 26:37-47
• Kędra M, Wćodarska-Kowalczuk M (2008) Distribution and diversity of sipunculan fauna in high Arctic fjords (west Spitsbergen). Polar Biology 31:1181-1190
• Murina GV (1977) Marine worms of the Arctic and boreal waters of Europe. Identification books of the USSR fauna.
• Murina GV, Sorensen J (2004) Marine Worms of the Phylum Sipuncula in Faroese waters. Frðdskaparrit 51:280-291
• Pancucci-Papadopoulou MA, Murina GV, Zenetos A (1999) The phylum Sipuncula in the Mediteranean Sea. 1-109
• Théel H (1875) Etudes sur des Gephyreens inermes des ers de la Scandinavie, du Spitsberg et du Groenland. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskaps-Akademies Handlingar 3:1-30
• Théel H (1905) Northern and arctic invertebrates in the collection of the Swedish State Museum. I. Sipunculids. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskaps-Akademies Handlingar 3:1-30
• Wesenberg-Lund E (1930) Priapulida and Sipunculidae. Danish Ingolf-Expedition 4:1-44
• Wesenberg-Lund E (1933) The collections of Gephyreans in the Royal Museum of Natural History of Belgium. Bulletin du Institute Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique 9:1-15
• Wesenberg-Lund E (1937) The zoology of east Greenland: Gephyreans. Meddelelser om Gronland 121:1-25
• Wesenberg-Lund E (1938) Norwegian Gephyrea from the collections of the Zoological Museum of Trondheim. Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskabs Forhandlinger 11:26-29
• Wesenberg-Lund E (1939) Gephyreans from Swedish waters in the Museum of Natural History of Gothenburg. Göteborgs Kungliga Vetenskaps Vittenhets-Samhälles Handlingar 6:1-35