4, see text The Terebellidae is a marine family of polychaete worms, of which the type taxon is Terebella, described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1767 12th edition of Systema Naturae.

The numerous, very long tentacles which radiate from near the mouth are used for finding and collecting food particles from the sediment surface.

The mid-body chaetigers are in double rows in the subfamily Terebellinae.

In the subfamily Polycirrinae, the gills are absent and the prostomium is expanded as an undulating membrane which bears the tentacles.,[2][3] Notably, some of these worms are the only known violet or purple bioluminescent animals.

[4] The roughly 400 known species are divided between many dozens of genera.