FIGURE 7. Polydora ecuadoriana life cycle diagram. A, sinuous spermatophore released by male and caught by female. B, female brooding early larvae in egg capsules joined to each other in string, with each attached by two stalks to inner wall of burrow in shell. C, fragment of egg capsule string. D, 3-chaetiger larva hatched from egg capsule and entered into the plankton. E, 16-chaetiger pelagic larva ready for settlement and metamorphosis. F, juvenile in silty tube at beginning of boring into shell, with palps lacking pigmentation.

Published as part of Radashevsky, Vasily I., Lana, Paulo C. & Nalesso, Rosebel C., 2006, Morphology and biology of Polydora species (Polychaeta: Spionidae) boring into oyster shells in South America, with the description of a new species, pp. 1-37 in Zootaxa 1353 on page 15, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.174538