(Say, 1823)
Body
Medium sized larvae up to 9 mm long. Living larvae greenish red. Claws on the posterior parapods are simpel. No ventral tubules on the 11th segment. Procercus and anal tubules present (Wiederholm, 1983; Moller Pillot, 1984a; Contreras-Lichtenberg, 1986).
Head
The head capsule is shining. Anterior margin of frontal apotome is concave without a pit, but with a reticulated mark, 2 x as wide as long Dicr g tritomus frontoclyp. Labral sclerites 1 and 2 are separate.
Antenna
The antenna consists of 5 segments. The blade is subequal to or shorter than the flagellum. Segment 4 is unusually long, much longer than segment 3. Lauterborn organs distally on the second segment.
Mentum
The mentum has one crenate median tooth and 6 pairs of lateral teeth. The ventromental plates are narrow, triangular Dicr modes ment 8.
Labrum
SI is plumose and labral lamellae a large scale with numerous spines. The pecten epipharyngis consists of 5 spines. The premandible has two apical teeth and one blunt inner tooth (Contreras-Lichtenberg, 1986).
Mandible
The mandible with one pale dorsal tooth, an apical tooth with 3 inner teeth. The seta interna with 4 plumose branches (Wiederholm, 1983; Contreras-Lichtenberg, 1986).
Differential characteristics
The combination of a single median mental tooth Dicr nervosus mentum, ventromental plates narrower than mentum. Pecten epipharyngis with 10 teeth and a concave frontal apotome separate Dicrotendipes from all other genera. Dicrotendipes lobiger with a convex frontal apotome can be separated by the large pit and crenate anterior margin of the frontal apotome, the single median mental tooth and ventromental plates narrower than mentum.
D. modestus can be separated from the other Dicrotendipes species by:
An antero-median reticulated mark, 2 x as wide as long (no pit) on the frontal apotome and mandible with one dorsal tooth.