| Lepidophthalmus turneranus | |
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| Species: | L. turneranus |
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| Lepidophthalmus turneranus (White, 1861) | |
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Lepidophthalmus turneranus (formerly Callianassa turnerana), the Cameroon ghost shrimp, is a species of "ghost shrimp" or "mud lobster" that lives off the coast of West Africa. It occasionally erupts into dense swarms, one of which resulted in the naming of the country Cameroon.
Lepidophthalmus turneranus is found in lagoons and estuaries, including almost fresh water, around the Gulf of Guinea from Togo to Congo. [2]
Adults reach a total length of 5.5–14.5 centimetres (2.2–5.7 in). [1] The rostrum ends in three or five teeth, [1] a feature shared with the Madagascan species L. grandidieri . [2] In juveniles, the teeth may be missing. [1] There is a sexual dimorphism in the form of the cheliped (claw-bearing appendage): females have a "deep crescent-shaped depression" near the base of the inside of the claw's fixed finger, while males lack this depression. [1]
Lepidophthalmus turneranus lives in burrows in mud. Every three to five years, vast swarms form in estuaries, [1] and copulation occurs outside the burrow. [3] When James Aspinall Turner presented the first specimens to the British Museum, he noted that: [4]
... this long-bodied Crustacean appears periodically in the river in prodigious numbers, which disappear in the course of ten days or a fortnight. The natives are very fond of them, as they are delicious eating; and as soon as they make their appearance in the river, the men here leave their usual pursuits to catch them.
The Cameroon ghost shrimp was first described by Adam White in 1861, under the name Callianassa turnerana. That description was based on a specimen given by "the captain of an African trader" to James Aspinall Turner, who in turn presented it to the Zoology Department of the British Museum (now part of the Natural History Museum). [4] The species was transferred to the genus Lepidophthalmus by K. Sakai in 1999. [2]
L. turneranus is "probably the only crustacean ... for which a country is named". [1] When the Portuguese discovered the Wouri River in the 15th century, they witnessed a swarm of L. turneranus, and therefore named the river Rio dos Camarões ("river of the shrimp"). That name was anglicised to "Cameroons River", which came to be used for the whole country, and borrowed into other languages (including the French Cameroun, the German Kamerun and the Dutch Kameroen). [1]
Homarus is a genus of lobsters, which include the common and commercially significant species Homarus americanus and Homarus gammarus. The Cape lobster, which was formerly in this genus as H. capensis, was moved in 1995 to the new genus Homarinus.
Thalassinidea is a former infraorder of decapod crustaceans that live in burrows in muddy bottoms of the world's oceans. In Australian English, the littoral thalassinidean Trypaea australiensis is referred to as the yabby, frequently used as bait for estuarine fishing; elsewhere, however, they are poorly known, and as such have few vernacular names, "mud lobster" and "ghost shrimp" counting among them. The burrows made by thalassinideans are frequently preserved, and the fossil record of thalassinideans reaches back to the late Jurassic.
Axiidea is an infraorder of decapod crustaceans. They are colloquially known as mud shrimp, ghost shrimp, or burrowing shrimp; however, these decapods are only distantly related to true shrimp. Axiidea and Gebiidea are divergent infraoders of the former infraorder Thalassinidea. These infraorders have converged ecologically and morphologically as burrowing forms. Based on molecular evidence as of 2009, it is now widely believed that these two infraorders represent two distinct lineages separate from one another. Since this is a recent change, much of the literature and research surrounding these infraorders still refers to the Axiidea and Gebiidea in combination as "thalassinidean" for the sake of clarity and reference. This division based on molecular evidence is consistent with the groupings proposed by Robert Gurney in 1938 based on larval developmental stages.
Upogebiidae is a family of mud shrimp crustaceans belonging to the infraorder Gebiidea, within the order Decapoda. They are infauna, living their entire adult lives in seafloor burrows. Over 100 species have been identified, with different species often highly specialized for different types of substrate, even including sea sponges or coral. They are filter feeders, although some species also deposit feed.
Callianassa is a genus of mud shrimps, in the family Callianassidae. Three of the species in this genus have been split off into a new genus, Pestarella, while others such as Callianassa filholi have been moved to Biffarius. The genus is named after the Nereid of the Greco-Roman mythology.
Gilvossius tyrrhenus is a species of mud shrimp which grows to a length of 70 mm (2.8 in). It lives in burrows in shallow sandy parts of the sea-bed in the Mediterranean Sea and northern Atlantic Ocean. It is the most common thalassinidean in the Mediterranean, and has been used as bait by fishermen for at least 200 years.
Thalassina is a genus of mud lobsters found in the mangrove swamps of the Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean. Its nocturnal burrowing is important for the recycling of nutrients in the mangrove ecosystem, although it is sometimes considered a pest of fish and prawn farms.
Acanthacaris is a genus of deep-water lobsters. It contains two species, A. caeca and A. tenuimana, and is the only genus in the subfamily Neophoberinae.
Callianassa subterranea is a species of burrowing ghost shrimp. This species is known by such generic common names as "mud shrimp" and "ghost shrimp".
Vulcanocalliax arutyunovi is a species of Thalassinidea found on a mud volcano in the Gulf of Cádiz between Spain and Morocco. It was discovered during the Census of Marine Life, and is so distinct from its closest relatives that it has been placed in a new subfamily, the Vulcanocallianacinae. The species is unusually large for a ghost shrimp, but despite that appears to brood only a single embryo. The species is named after the volcano on which it was discovered, Captain Arutyunov.
Neotrypaea californiensis, the Bay ghost shrimp, is a species of ghost shrimp that lives on the Pacific coast of North America. It is a pale animal which grows to a length of 11.5 cm (4.5 in). One claw is bigger than the other, especially in males, and the enlarged claw is thought to have a function in mating. N. californiensis is a deposit feeder that lives in extensive burrow systems, and is responsible for high rates of bioturbation. It adversely affects oyster farms, and its numbers are controlled in some places by the application of pesticides. It carries out an important role in the ecosystem, and is used by fishermen as bait.
Lepidophthalmus is a genus of ghost shrimp.
A shrimp (pl.: shrimp or shrimps is a crustacean with an elongated body and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – typically belonging to the Caridea or Dendrobranchiata of the order Decapoda, although some crustaceans outside of this order are also referred to as "shrimp".
Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton and ten legs, some of which are edible.
Kraussillichirus kraussi, commonly named the common sandprawn or pink prawn, is a species of ghost shrimp, an African crustacean in the family Callichiridae.
Clausidium dissimile is a species of copepod that has been found along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts from Massachusetts to Florida. They are found on the bodies of mud shrimp of the family Callianassidae, or from water collected from mud shrimp burrows.
Thalassina anomala, known as the scorpion mud lobster, is a species of crustacean in the family Thalassinidae.
Gourretiidae is a family of crustaceans belonging to the infraorder Axiidea, within the order Decapoda.
Callichirus major sensu lato is a monophyletic species complex of ghost shrimp in the infraorder Axiidea, found in flat sandy beaches across the Pan-American coastline.
Pseudohelice subquadrata is a species of crab in the family Varunidae. It is found from the eastern Indian Ocean to the western Pacific Ocean, north to Japan, south to Eastern Australia, east to French Polynesia, west to Indonesia and Thailand. It lives near mangroves, burrowing in firm soils, firm muddy sand or loose stones. Burrows are towards or above the high tide line on shores of estuaries and near river mouths of bays, and can have offshoots horizontal beneath the surface as long as three metres.