Harmothoe imbricata

The Fifteen-scaled Worm

Phylum Annelida
Class Polychaeta
Order Phyllodocida
Family Polynoidae
Genus Harmothoe
Species imbricata

Description: 6.5 cm long; 1.9 cm wide; dark green or gray in first few segments then a little lighter with mottling, also may be orange, tan, brown, reddish, black, speckled or mottled, or with a black stripe down back; no transverse bands; 15 pairs of scales; frontal lobe has two pairs of eyes, front pair on the lower side and rear pair on the upper side.

Habitat: Found free-living under rocks. Also found commensally in the shells of hermit crabs or in tubes of polychaetes.

Natural History: This scaleworm is known to brood its eggs under its scales and release its young in a free-living larval stage called the trochophore.