''Scyllarus arctus'' is a species of slipper lobster which lives in the Mediterranean Sea and eastern Atlantic Ocean. It is uncommon in British and Irish waters, but a number of

English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

vernacular names In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

have been applied, including ''small European locust lobster'', ''lesser slipper lobster'' and ''broad lobster''.

Distribution

''S. arctus'' is found throughout the Mediterranean Sea, and in eastern parts of the Atlantic Ocean, from the Azores,

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and the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

as far north as the English Channel. The species is rare north of the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...

; several specimens have been seen in British waters, but nonetheless, ''S. arctus'' is rarer in Britain than the giant squid, ''Architeuthis dux''. Until 1960, ''S. arctus'' was thought to be the only species of ''

Scyllarus ''Scyllarus'' is a genus of slipper lobsters from the Atlantic Ocean, including the Mediterranean and Caribbean. Until 2002, the genus included far more species, but these are now placed in other genera. The following species remain in ''Scylla ...

'' in the Mediterranean Sea, but then it was realised that the lesser known ''

Scyllarus pygmaeus ''Scyllarus pygmaeus'' is a species of slipper lobster that lives in shallow water in the Mediterranean Sea and eastern Atlantic Ocean. It grows to a length of , which is too small for it to be fished for. The juvenile form was first described ...

'' is also present throughout much of the Mediterranean Sea.

Description

''Scyllarus arctus'' may reach up to long, although sizes of are more typical. It is reddish-brown in colour, with a dark brown spot in the centre of each abdominal somite, although this is not sharply defined. The

pereiopod The decapod (crustaceans such as a crab, lobster, shrimp or prawn) is made up of 20 body segments grouped into two main body parts: the cephalothorax and the pleon (abdomen). Each segment may possess one pair of appendages, although in various g ...

s have a dark blue ring around each segment. It can be told apart from its close relative ''

'', which lives

sympatric In biology, two related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter one another. An initially interbreeding population that splits into two or more distinct species sh ...

ally with ''S. arctus'', chiefly by its larger size, but also by other features such as the shape of a tubercle on the last thoracic

sternite The sternum (pl. "sterna") is the ventral portion of a segment of an arthropod thorax or abdomen. In insects, the sterna are usually single, large sclerites, and external. However, they can sometimes be divided in two or more, in which case the ...

; this is flattened in ''S. arctus'', but conical in ''S. pygmaeus''. ''S. arctus'' has among the smallest measured genome sizes in the Order

Decapoda The Decapoda or decapods (literally "ten-footed") are an order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, including many familiar groups, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp and prawns. Most decapods are scavengers. The order is esti ...

, at less than a third of that seen in the related genus ''

Scyllarides ''Scyllarides'' is a genus of slipper lobsters. Characteristics ''Scyllarides'' is placed in the subfamily Arctidinae, which is differentiated from other subfamilies by the presence of multiarticulated exopods on all three maxillipeds, and a ...

''.

Ecology

''S. arctus'' is susceptible to

white spot syndrome White spot syndrome (WSS) is a viral infection of penaeid shrimp. The disease is highly lethal and contagious, killing shrimp quickly. Outbreaks of this disease have wiped out the entire populations of many shrimp farms within a few days, in pla ...

, and is predated upon by a wide range of

demersal fish Demersal fish, also known as groundfish, live and feed on or near the bottom of seas or lakes (the demersal zone).Walrond Carl . "Coastal fish - Fish of the open sea floor"Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Updated 2 March 2009 They occ ...

. It lives at depths of 4–50 m on muddy or rocky substrates, and in ''Posidonia'' meadows. It is the subject of small scale

fishery Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both ...

, but its scarcity and its small size make it an unattractive target.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q28455 Achelata Crustaceans of the Atlantic Ocean Edible crustaceans Crustaceans described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus

Distribution

Description

Ecology

References

Further reading

External links