(Fabricius, 1780)
Description:
Coxal plates elongate and robust, plate 1 rectangular, not tapering distally, plate 4 emarginate along almost the entire posterior margin; epimeral plate 3 posterodistal angle with a small tooth, posterior margin straight and smooth. Head with triangular lateral lobes, distal angle narrowly rounded; eyes large, narrow, and irregularly elongate. Antenna 1 peduncle article 1 very robust, articles 2 and 3 strongly compressed, flagellum up to about 16-articulate; accessory flagellum about 7-articulate. Female antenna 2 half as long as antenna 1, flagellum up to about 30-articulate; male antenna 2 much longer than in female; antenna 1 and 2 in male with calceoli. Gnathopod 1 ischium elongate, propodus equal to the length of the carpus, palm oblique, weakly sinuous, minutely toothed, dactylus with a conspicuous tooth on the inner margin. Gnathopod 2 propodus oval and very much shorter than the carpus, minutely subchelate, very densely setose. Pereiopods 3 and 4 propodus posterior margin with short and long spinules. Pereiopods 5 to 7 robust, spinose, basis broad with the posterior margin serrate. Uropods 1 and 2 spinose, rami about equal in length; uropod 3 inner ramus little shorter than the outer one, inner margins of both rami with numerous short setae, especially in male. Telson cleft almost to the base, each lobe with two lateral and one apical spinule.
Size:
Up to about 25 mm.
Colour:
Cream, with a reddish tinge.
Habitat:
Depth range about 50 to 3200 metres. Locally common, especially on dead fish, in crab pots and on fishing lines.
Distribution:
Boreal, circumpolar; North Atlantic, American and European coasts.