| Caprella equilibra | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Superorder: | Peracarida |
| Order: | Amphipoda |
| Family: | Caprellidae |
| Genus: | Caprella |
| Species: | C. equilibra |
| Binomial name | |
| Caprella equilibra | |
| Synonyms | |
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Caprella equilibra is a species of skeleton shrimp in the family Caprellidae. It lives among other organisms on the seabed and occurs in both shallow and deep water in many parts of the world.
The skeleton prawn is not closely related to other amphipods. A cephalothorax results from the head's partial fusion with the first and second thoracic segments. The body is slender, cylindrical, elongate and unflattened. The first and second thoracic segments bear maxillipeds and gnathopods (feeding appendages) respectively, the third bears gnathopods, and the sixth, seventh and eighth bear well-developed periopods (walking legs). The remaining thoracic segments and the small abdominal segments bear vestigial appendages. The tips of some of the appendages have grasping hooks to cling onto the substrate. [2] The male Caprella equilibra is about 22 mm (0.9 in) long while the female is about half that size. [3]
C. equilibra has a cosmopolitan distribution. The type locality is the United States, where it is present on both coasts, and the range includes Argentina, Australia, Japan, Madagascar, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, West Africa, Western Europe and Venezuela. Its depth range is from the surface down to about 3,000 m (10,000 ft). Its typical habitats include living concealed among seagrasses, sponges, green and red algae, hydroids, octocorals, bryozoans and colonial tunicates. [3]
This species lives on the seabed, moving much like a looping caterpillar: gripping with its front limbs, bending its body and drawing in its rear limbs, then releasing its front limbs and extending its body. [2] It is mainly a detritivore but has a more varied diet than some other caprellids, ingesting some of the hydroids to which it clings and even feeding on the plankton collected by the polyps. [4]
Derocheilocarididae is a family of marine crustaceans that form part of the meiobenthos. It is the only family in the monotypic order Mystacocaridida, and the monotypic subclass Mystacocarida. These mystacocarids are less than 1 mm (0.04 in) long, and live interstitially in the intertidal zones of sandy beaches.
Malacostraca is the second largest of the six classes of crustaceans just behind hexapods, containing about 40,000 living species, divided among 16 orders. Its members, the malacostracans, display a great diversity of body forms and include crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill, prawns, woodlice, amphipods, mantis shrimp, tongue-eating lice and many other less familiar animals. They are abundant in all marine environments and have colonised freshwater and terrestrial habitats. They are segmented animals, united by a common body plan comprising 20 body segments, and divided into a head, thorax, and abdomen.
Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from 1 to 340 millimetres and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far described. They are mostly marine animals, but are found in almost all aquatic environments. Some 1,900 species live in fresh water, and the order also includes the terrestrial sandhoppers such as Talitrus saltator and Arcitalitrus sylvaticus.
Mysida is an order of small, shrimp-like crustaceans in the malacostracan superorder Peracarida. Their common name opossum shrimps stems from the presence of a brood pouch or "marsupium" in females. The fact that the larvae are reared in this pouch and are not free-swimming characterises the order. The mysid's head bears a pair of stalked eyes and two pairs of antennae. The thorax consists of eight segments each bearing branching limbs, the whole concealed beneath a protective carapace and the abdomen has six segments and usually further small limbs.
Isopoda is an order of crustaceans that includes woodlice and their relatives. Isopods live in the sea, in fresh water, or on land. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons, two pairs of antennae, seven pairs of jointed limbs on the thorax, and five pairs of branching appendages on the abdomen that are used in respiration. Females brood their young in a pouch under their thorax.
The Cephalocarida are a class in the subphylum Crustacea comprising only 12 species. Both the nauplii and the adults are benthic. They were discovered in 1955 by Howard L. Sanders, and are commonly referred to as horseshoe shrimp. They have been grouped together with the Remipedia in the Xenocarida. Although a second family, Lightiellidae, is sometimes used, all cephalocaridans are generally considered to belong in just one family: Hutchinsoniellidae. Fossil records of cephalocaridans has been found in 462 million year old deposits.
Caprellidae is a family of amphipods commonly known as skeleton shrimps. Their common name denotes the threadlike slender body which allows them to virtually disappear among the fine filaments of seaweed, hydroids and bryozoans. They are sometimes also known as ghost shrimps.
Triops longicaudatus is a freshwater crustacean of the order Notostraca, resembling a miniature horseshoe crab. It is characterized by an elongated, segmented body, a flattened shield-like brownish carapace covering two thirds of the thorax, and two long filaments on the abdomen. The genus name Triops comes from Greek ὤψ or ṓps, meaning "eye" prefixed with Latin tri-, "three", in reference to its three eyes. Longicaudatus is an Latin neologism combining longus ("long") and caudatus ("tailed"), referring to its long tail structures. Triops longicaudatus is found in fresh water ponds and pools, often in places where few higher forms of life can exist.
Phylogeny of Malacostraca is the evolutionary relationships of the largest of the six classes of crustaceans, containing about 40,000 living species, divided among 16 orders. Its members display a great diversity of body forms. Although the class Malacostraca is united by a number of well-defined and documented features, which were recognised a century ago by William Thomas Calman in 1904, the phylogenetic relationship of the orders which compose this class is unclear due to the vast diversity present in their morphology. Molecular studies have attempted to infer the phylogeny of this clade, resulting in phylogenies which have a limited amount of morphological support. To resolve a well-supported eumalacostracan phylogeny and obtain a robust tree, it will be necessary to look beyond the most commonly utilized sources of data.
Lanice conchilega, commonly known as the sand mason worm, is a species of burrowing marine polychaete worm. It builds a characteristic tube which projects from the seabed, consisting of cemented sand grains and shell fragments with a fringe at the top.
Nototropis falcatus is a species of amphipod crustacean. It is whitish in colour, with brown patches, and grows to a total length of around 7 mm (0.3 in). It lives on soft sediment such as fine sand at depths of 10 to 50 metres, from northern Norway to the west coast of Ireland, including the North Sea, and as far south as the southern Bay of Biscay.
Caprella mutica, commonly known as the Japanese skeleton shrimp, is a species of skeleton shrimp. They are relatively large caprellids, reaching a maximum length of 50 mm (2.0 in). They are sexually dimorphic, with the males usually being much larger than the females. They are characterized by their "hairy" first and second thoracic segments and the rows of spines on their bodies. Body color ranges from green to red to blue, depending on the environment. They are omnivorous highly adaptable opportunistic feeders. In turn, they provide a valuable food source for fish, crabs, and other larger predators. They are usually found in dense colonies attached to submerged man-made structures, floating seaweed, and other organisms.
Caprella acanthogaster is a species of skeleton shrimp in the genus Caprella. It is native to northeast Asia. It closely resembles Caprella mutica but can be distinguished by its smooth first and second pereonites, as well as its linear-shaped gills.
Caprella linearis is a species of skeleton shrimp in the genus Caprella. It is native to the North Atlantic, North Pacific, and the Arctic Ocean. It closely resembles Caprella septentrionalis with which it shares the same geographical distribution.
Aega antarctica is a species of isopod crustacean. It is a temporary ectoparasite of fish, feeding on the fish's blood and then dropping to the seabed to digest its meal over a period of several months. It is found in the seas around Antarctica.
Crustaceans belong to the subphylum Crustacea, and form a large, diverse group of arthropods including decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, opossum shrimps, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can be treated as a subphylum under the clade Mandibulata. It is now well accepted that the hexapods emerged deep in the Crustacean group, with the completed group referred to as Pancrustacea. The three classes Cephalocarida, Branchiopoda and Remipedia are more closely related to the hexapods than they are to any of the other crustaceans.
Sinocorophium hangangense is a species of gammaridean amphipod found mainly in Korea. The species was found in the lower reaches of Han River in Gyeonggi-do, Korea. The shape of the first and the third uropods, the posterior appendages, alongside the relatively large size of the body distinguishes the Sinocorophium hangangense from other related species.
Hutchinsoniella macracantha is a species of crustacean known as a horseshoe shrimp. It is the only species in the genus Hutchinsoniella and was first described in 1955 by Howard L. Sanders, having been discovered in Long Island Sound; they were the first example of a new class of crustacean that was given the name Cephalocarida.
Caprella penantis is a species of skeleton shrimp in the family Caprellidae. It lives on the seabed in shallow water in many parts of the world. This species was first described in 1814 by the English zoologist William Elford Leach who named it Caprella penantis in honour of the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant. The type locality is Devon, England.
Caprella unica is a species of skeleton shrimp in the genus Caprella within the family Caprellidae. The larvae are plankton-like. They are relatively small, with two large and two small antennae. They only live in the sea, and are widely found in Cape Cod, Maine and Newfoundland.
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