''Stenopus hispidus'' is a shrimp-like decapod

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can ...

belonging to the infraorder

Stenopodidea The Stenopodidea or boxer shrimps are a small group of decapod crustaceans. Often confused with Caridea shrimp or Dendrobranchiata prawns, they are neither, belonging to their own group. Anatomy They can be differentiated from the Dendrobranc ...

. Common names include coral banded shrimp and banded cleaner shrimp.

Distribution

''Stenopus hispidus'' has a pan-tropical distribution, extending into some temperate areas. It is found in the western

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

from

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, including the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

. In Australia, it is found as far south as Sydney and it also occurs around

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Description

''Stenopus hispidus'' reaches a total length of , and has striking colouration. The ground colour is transparent, but the carapace,

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the to ...

and the large third pereiopod are all banded red and white. The antennae and other pereiopods are white. The abdomen, carapace and third pereiopods are covered in spines. ''Stenopus hispidus'' has the ability to detect individuals of its species. This trait is uncommon in invertebrates and is most likely explained through chemical signals.

Ecology

''Stenopus hispidus'' lives below the intertidal zone, at depth of up to , on

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. C ...

s. It is a

cleaner shrimp Cleaner shrimp is a common name for a number of swimming decapod crustaceans, that clean other organisms of parasites. They belong to any of three families, Hippolytidae (including the Pacific cleaner shrimp, ''Lysmata amboinensis''), Pala ...

, and advertises to passing

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

by slowly waving its long, white antennae. ''S. hispidus'' uses its three pairs of claws to remove

parasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

and damaged tissue from the fish. ''Stenopus hispidus'' is monogamous. ''S. hispidus'' females are typically larger than the males. They occupy a territory that is 1–2 meters in diameter."Stenopus hispidus (Red-banded coral shrimp)" (PDF). ''The Online Guide to the Animals of Trinidad and Tobago'': 5. Retrieved October 23, 2019.

Images

File:Reef0588 - Flickr - NOAA Photo Library.jpg, Top view of ''S. hispidus'' ( Chuuk,

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...

) File:Stenopus Hispidus.jpg, Front view of ''S. hispidus'' File:Barberpole (177467769).jpg, Another ''S. hispidus''

References

External links

* * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q935625 Stenopodidea Crustaceans of the Atlantic Ocean Marine fauna of Africa Marine fauna of Asia Marine fauna of Oceania Marine fauna of North America Marine fauna of South America Marine fauna of Southeast Asia Anthozoa of the United States Crustaceans described in 1811