---
title: "Sabella penicillus"
description: "Sabella pavonina — Altri animali. Sabella pavonina, commonly known as the peacock worm, is a marine polychaete worm belonging to the family Sabellidae."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/it/animal/peacock-worm
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Sabella penicillus

> Sabella pavonina — Altri animali. Sabella pavonina, commonly known as the peacock worm, is a marine polychaete worm belonging to the family Sabellidae.

- Scientific name: *Sabella pavonina*
- Category: `other` (Altri animali)
- Habitats: `sea` (Mare e costa)
- iNaturalist observations: 393
- Wikidata: [Q1171262](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1171262)
- iNaturalist taxon: [338014](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/338014)

## Names

- en: Peacock Worm
- de: Pfauenfederwurm
- fr: Sabelle
- it: Sabella penicillus

## Countries with the most observations

FR (87), GB (74), IE (29), NL (18), SE (11), ZA (7), ES (6), GR (4), NO (4)

## Summary

Sabella pavonina, commonly known as the peacock worm, is a marine polychaete worm belonging to the family Sabellidae. They can be found along the coasts of Western Europe and the Mediterranean. It is found in shallow, tidal waters with a bed of mud, sand or gravel. It is sometimes found on rocks or shipwrecks.
It is 10–25 centimetres (4–10 in) in length. Its body is elongated and divided into 100–600 small segments. The head has two fans of 8–45 feathery radioles arising from fleshy, semi-circular lobes. The body is mostly grey-green while the radioles are brown, red or purple with darker bands.
The worm lives inside…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabella_pavonina

## Photo

![Sabella penicillus](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/peacock-worm/medium.jpg)

Photo: B. Caleno · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/267857257

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/peacock-worm?lang=it` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).