User:Kontargreen/sandbox

Alitta succinea is a large polychaete commonly know as the clam or pile worm. For the most part, members of the polychaete class reproduce sexually. Mating females use a internal chemical pheromone that leads to the opposite sex shedding sperm in a feature called swarming. Epitoky is a feature that allow many worms of this class to mature from infertile sexually immature worm to a sexually mature worm. According to the article referenced, the display this species benefits from reproducing through epitoky. Within the epitoky cycle four stages of epitoky were discovered in both males and females. Parapodial modifications were distinct in the male sex, examples of these features would be serrated papillae in the dorsal and ventral cirrus.