Phascolion (Montuga) lutense Selenka

Cutler, Edward B., Schulze, Anja & Dean, Harlan K., 2004, Zealand species, Zootaxa 525, pp. 1-19 : 9

Phascolion (Montuga) lutense Selenka

Phascolion lutense Selenka, 1885:16 –17.

Type locality: South Pacific, 3500 m.

Remarks: The 134 specimens in the collection were living within the unique but typical cylindrical gray clay/mucus tubes of their own construction, 8–26 mm long. Other than the dense array of small gray papillae surrounding the base of the introvert there are no other epidermal ornamentations on the light gray bodies. Internally the strong introvert retractor muscles are fused into a single column until very near the posterior end where they bifurcate for a short distance.

Distribution: A cold­water species (1000–6860 m), unknown from lower latitudes, even in deep water. Widely collected in the Southern Hemisphere in all the worlds oceans, including the Antarctic. In northern waters it is recorded from the northwestern Pacific and the northeastern Atlantic. These are the first records from New Zealand waters, but are only a modest range extension of the large nearby Antarctic population ( Cutler et al., 2001).