(Costa, 1851)
Description:
Urosome segment 1 with a rounded dorsal keel and a conspicuous dorsal cleft; coxal plates elongate, plate 1 broad, plates 2 and 3 narrow; epimeral plate 3 with the posterodistal angle rounded, posterior margin smooth or weakly crenulate. Head with triangularly produced lateral lobes, apex narrowly rounded; eyes moderately large and oval. Antenna 1 peduncle article 1 very robust, especially in male, articles 2 and 3 strongly compressed, flagellum up to about 10-articulate, article 1 in male extremely large and very densely setose; accessory flagellum 3-articulate. Antenna 2 in female about two or three times the length of antenna 1, flagellum up to about 25-articulate; antenna 2 in male rather longer than in female; antenna 1 and 2 in male with calceoli. Gnathopod 1 long and slender, propodus about equal in length to the carpus with a dense tuft of stout setae concealing the rudimentary dactylus. Gnathopod 2 also slender, propodus oval, minutely chelate. Pereiopods increasing in length from pereiopod 5 to 7, spinulose, basis very broadly expanded. Uropod 3 rami about equal in length, inner margin of the inner ramus with a few long marginal setae. Telson elongate, cleft to three-quarters of its length, each lobe with a lateral and an apical spinule.
Size:
Up to about 10 mm.
Colour:
Yellowish, with orange markings.
Habitat:
Depth range from 20 to 250 metres.
Distribution:
North-East Atlantic, Iceland, Europe; very widely recorded from western Norway to the western Mediterranean.