(Krøyer, 1846)
Description:
Body slender, elongate, finely haired. Carapace short, subtruncate, without dorsal serrations; front fringed with short setae, smooth except for some serrations above a semicircular excavation which is bounded below by a slightly upturned acute tooth which projects beyond the upper serrations; the excavation is much smaller in male than in female. The lower margin is serrate for some distance back.
Antenna 1 bent between the second and third segments. Distal segment of antenna 2 in female ill-defined. All the pereion segments are visible from above. Pleopods without an external process on the inner ramus, two pairs, rarely one or none, in male. Exopodites present on the third maxillipeds and on the first four pairs of pereiopods, rarely the first two pairs, in the male; in the female on the first three pairs, rarely the first two pairs. The mandibles are broadened at the base. A pair of long setae project from the hind end of pleonite 5. Peduncle of uropod a little longer than the exopod, about equal to the proximal segment of the endopod, of which the distal segment, including its terminal spine, is much less than half as long.
No free telson.
Size:
Up to 12 mm.
Habitat:
Shelf to bathyal on muddy sand and mud bottoms.
Depth range:
From about 10 to 2000 m depth, but usually on the shelf.
Distribution in the North Sea:
Northern and southern North Sea, Skagerrak.
World distribution:
Arctic-Boreal species, recorded from both sides of the Atlantic in colder water and extending into the Arctic.