WoRMS name details
Magelona mirabilis (Johnston, 1865)
130271 (urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:130271)
unaccepted > superseded combination (superseded subsequent combination)
Species
Rhynophylla bitentaculata Carrington, 1865 · unaccepted
marine, brackish, fresh, terrestrial
recent only
(of Maea mirabilis Johnston, 1865) Johnston, G. (1865). A catalogue of the British non-parasitical worms in the collection of the British Museum. <em>[book].</em> 1-365. British Museum. London. [See also separate entry for Baird supplement]., available online at http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/12291
page(s): 278-279 [plate XXII not published] [details]
page(s): 278-279 [plate XXII not published] [details]
Read, G.; Fauchald, K. (Ed.) (2026). World Polychaeta Database. Magelona mirabilis (Johnston, 1865). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=130271 on 2026-03-25
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Nomenclature
original description
(of Maea mirabilis Johnston, 1865) Johnston, G. (1865). A catalogue of the British non-parasitical worms in the collection of the British Museum. <em>[book].</em> 1-365. British Museum. London. [See also separate entry for Baird supplement]., available online at http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/12291
page(s): 278-279 [plate XXII not published] [details]
basis of record Bellan, G. (2001). Polychaeta, <i>in</i>: Costello, M.J. <i>et al.</i> (Ed.) (2001). European register of marine species: a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification. <em>Collection Patrimoines Naturels.</em> 50: 214-231. (look up in IMIS) [details]
page(s): 278-279 [plate XXII not published] [details]
basis of record Bellan, G. (2001). Polychaeta, <i>in</i>: Costello, M.J. <i>et al.</i> (Ed.) (2001). European register of marine species: a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification. <em>Collection Patrimoines Naturels.</em> 50: 214-231. (look up in IMIS) [details]
Taxonomy
redescription
Fiege, Dieter; Licher, Frank; Mackie, Andrew S.Y. (2000). A partial review of the European Magelonidae (Annelida: Polychaeta): <i>Magelona mirabilis</i> redefined and <i>M. johnstoni</i> sp. nov. distinguished. <em>Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom.</em> 80(2): 215-234., available online at https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025315499001800 [details] Available for editors 
[request]
[request]Other
context source (BeRMS 2020)
Bio-environmental research group; Institute of Agricultural and Fisheries research (ILVO), Belgium; (2016): Macrobenthos monitoring at long-term monitoring stations in the Belgian part of the North Sea from 2001 on. [details]
additional source Muller, Y. (2004). Faune et flore du littoral du Nord, du Pas-de-Calais et de la Belgique: inventaire. [Coastal fauna and flora of the Nord, Pas-de-Calais and Belgium: inventory]. <em>Commission Régionale de Biologie Région Nord Pas-de-Calais: France.</em> 307 pp., available online at http://www.vliz.be/imisdocs/publications/145561.pdf [details]
additional source Jones, Meredith Leam. (1977). A redescription of <i>Magelona papillicornis</i> F. Müller. pp: 247-266. In: Donald J. Reish and Kristian Fauchald (Eds.). <em>Essays on Polychaetous Annelids in Memory of Dr. Olga Hartman.</em> Los Angeles: The Allan Hancock Foundation, University of Southern California.
page(s): 248 [details] Available for editors [request]
additional source Muller, Y. (2004). Faune et flore du littoral du Nord, du Pas-de-Calais et de la Belgique: inventaire. [Coastal fauna and flora of the Nord, Pas-de-Calais and Belgium: inventory]. <em>Commission Régionale de Biologie Région Nord Pas-de-Calais: France.</em> 307 pp., available online at http://www.vliz.be/imisdocs/publications/145561.pdf [details]
additional source Jones, Meredith Leam. (1977). A redescription of <i>Magelona papillicornis</i> F. Müller. pp: 247-266. In: Donald J. Reish and Kristian Fauchald (Eds.). <em>Essays on Polychaetous Annelids in Memory of Dr. Olga Hartman.</em> Los Angeles: The Allan Hancock Foundation, University of Southern California.
page(s): 248 [details] Available for editors
[request]
Present Present in aphia/obis/gbif/idigbio Inaccurate Introduced: alien Containing type locality
From regional or thematic species database
Synonymy Synonym of M. papillicornis [but see note with M. papillicornis based on the article of Fiege et al. 2000 (Aphia-team)] [details]Synonymy M. mirabilis is not a synonym of M. papillicornis, but both are considered valid species. M. papillicornis recorded from European waters by a number of authors had been shown by Jones (1977) to be a different species, for which he provisionally suggested to use the name M. mirabilis. Later it became obvious that two coexistent and morphologically similar species were confused under the name M. mirabilis (s. Fiege et al. 2000) [details]
Unreviewed
Identification All specimens identified after 1994 (the yesr M. johnstone became idenifiable, turn out to be M. johnstoni; all specimens from the 70s and 80s that were re-identified also prove to be M. johnstoni. So chances are good that everything identified as M. mirabilis in the Belgian part of the North Sea is actuall M. johnstoni, and that M. mirabilis does not occur, or at least not as abundantly as previously supposed. [details]
| Language | Name | |
|---|---|---|
| English | bristleworm | [details] |
BIOTIC
Marine Life Information Network - UK
To Barcode of Life (9 barcodes)
To Biodiversity Heritage Library (3 publications)
To European Nucleotide Archive, ENA (Magelona mirabilis)
To GenBank (7 nucleotides; 27 proteins)
To Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI)
To NHMUK collection (Magelona mirabilis (Johnston, 1865); NON-TYPE; NHMUK:ecatalogue:9473929)
To PESI
To USNM Invertebrate Zoology Annelida Collection (3 records)
To ITIS
Marine Life Information Network - UK
To Barcode of Life (9 barcodes)
To Biodiversity Heritage Library (3 publications)
To European Nucleotide Archive, ENA (Magelona mirabilis)
To GenBank (7 nucleotides; 27 proteins)
To Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI)
To NHMUK collection (Magelona mirabilis (Johnston, 1865); NON-TYPE; NHMUK:ecatalogue:9473929)
To PESI
To USNM Invertebrate Zoology Annelida Collection (3 records)
To ITIS
From editor or global species database
Hosted externally
