''Palaemon pugio'', commonly known as daggerblade grass shrimp, is a small, transparent species of

shrimp A shrimp (: shrimp (American English, US) or shrimps (British English, UK)) is a crustacean with an elongated body and a primarily Aquatic locomotion, swimming mode of locomotion – typically Decapods belonging to the Caridea or Dendrobranchi ...

with yellow coloring and brownish spots. It can be found in

estuarine An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

and

tidal marsh A tidal marsh (also known as a type of "tidal wetland") is a marsh found along rivers, coasts and estuaries which floods and drains by the tidal movement of the adjacent estuary, sea or ocean.

habitats throughout the western Atlantic Ocean and

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

. ''Palaemon pugio'' has a smooth carapace and abdomen, as well as three pairs of legs. The second pair is the strongest, while the third pair lacks

chelae A chela ()also called a claw, nipper, or pinceris a pincer-shaped organ at the end of certain limbs of some arthropods. The name comes from Ancient Greek , through Neo-Latin '. The plural form is chelae. Legs bearing a chela are called chelipeds ...

(claws). It reaches a length of around , and has a life span of around one year. Like most

grass shrimp ''Palaemon'' is a genus of caridean shrimp in the family Palaemonidae Palaemonidae is a family of shrimp in the order Decapoda. Many species are carnivores that eat small invertebrates, and can be found in any aquatic habitat except the deep ...

, it is a forager and feeds on a variety of items, including

microalgae Microalgae or microphytes are microscopic scale, microscopic algae invisible to the naked eye. They are phytoplankton typically found in freshwater and marine life, marine systems, living in both the water column and sediment. They are unicellul ...

. They themselves are consumed by

killifish A killifish is any of various oviparous (egg-laying) cyprinodontiform fish, including families Aplocheilidae, Pantanodontidae, Cyprinodontidae, Fundulidae, Nothobranchiidae, Profundulidae, Aphaniidae and Valenciidae. All together, there ar ...

and other small foraging fish.

References

External links

Daggerblade Grass Shrimp
* Palaemonidae Caridea of the Atlantic Ocean Crustaceans described in 1949 Taxa named by Lipke Holthuis {{Caridea-stub

References

Further reading

External links