page_title: Capitella teleta
section_title: Life history
hierarchical_section_title: Capitella teleta / Ecology / Life history
caption_attribution_description: English: larval stages of Capitella teleta development
context_page_description: Capitella teleta is a small, cosmopolitan, segmented annelid worm. It is a well-studied invertebrate, which has been cultured for use in laboratories for over 30 years. C. teleta is the first marine polychaete to have its genome sequenced.
context_section_description: C. teleta embryos and early larval stages develop in a brood tube that surrounds the mother. The embryos are approximately 200 µm in diameter. Over the course of approximately a week, the embryos develop into non-feeding larvae which form musculature, a centralized nervous system, two circular ciliary bands, two eye spots, segments, and setae. The larvae are non-feeding and the digestive system develops at a later stage than other organs.  Pre-metamorphosis larvae can be categorized into nine stages, with each stage lasting approximately one day. Upon further body elongation and gut maturation, the larvae emerge from the brood tube, and swim forward with a rotational turn via the beating of cilia organized within two circular bands, the prototroch and telotroch. Larvae exhibit positive phototactic behavior in which they swim towards light, potentially an adaptation to aid in larval dispersal C. teleta is an indirect developer and undergoes metamorphosis from a swimming larva into a burrowing juvenile.  Metamorphosis is characterized by cilia loss, body elongation, and crawling behavior. Marine sediment functions as a cue to initiate metamorphosis into juvenile worms that thereafter grow into mature adults. Competent larvae can be induced to metamorphose into juveniles when exposed to the B vitamins Nicotinamide (B3) and Riboflavin (B2), suggesting that these chemical compounds may be responsible for the inductive role of the marine sediment in larval metamorphosis. The number of offspring in each brood tube can vary between 50 - 400 individuals, and is influenced by food quality.
  After metamorphosis, the juveniles begin burrowing and feeding. The juvenile worms continue to grow and add segments during the eight weeks it takes to become sexually mature adults. Males and females can reproduce multiple times during their lifetime. Adults live approximately 12–14 weeks after maturation.
caption: Stages of Capitella teleta larval development (Seaver et al., 2005)
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