| Skeleton shrimp | |
|---|---|
| Pariambus typicus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Order: | Amphipoda |
| Suborder: | Corophiidea |
| Infraorder: | Caprellida Leach, 1814 [1] |
| Families | |
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Skeleton shrimp are marine crustaceans of the infraorder Caprellida. The name denotes the threadlike slender body which allows them to virtually disappear among the fine filaments of seaweed, hydroids and bryozoans.
Contents |
Caprellids are exclusively marine and are found in oceans worldwide. A few species are found in the ocean depths, but most prefer low intertidal zones and subtidal waters among eelgrass, hydroids and bryozoans. They are typically seen attached to substrate by their grasping appendages called the pereiopods.
Caprellids are omnivorous, feeding on diatoms, detritus, protozoans, smaller amphipods, and crustacean larvae. Some species are filter feeders, using their antennae to filter food from the water or scrape it off the substrate. Most species are predators that sit and wait like a praying mantis, with their gnathopods ready to snatch any smaller invertebrates which come along. They accentuate their adaptive form and colouration by assuming an angular pose, resembling that of the fronds among which they live.[2] They remain motionless for long periods of time while waiting to ambush their prey, often protozoa or small worms.
Caprellids are typically preyed upon by surf perch, shrimp, nudibranchs such as the lion nudibranch Melibe leonina and brooding anenomes (Epiactis prolifera). Since they often inhabit eelgrass beds with sessile jellyfish, (Halicylystus and Thaumatoscyphus), the caprellids frequently become jellyfish food.[3] Caprellids are not normally considered a main source of food for fish, but when shiner perch (Cymatogaster aggregata) migrate into the eelgrass beds for reproduction, they target caprellids.[4]
Mating can only occur when the female is between the new and hardened exoskeletons, which both male and female do in order to grow. After mating the female will brood the fertilized eggs within her brood pouch. The young will hatch and emerged as juvenile adults.[5] After mating, the female in some species have been known to kill the males by injecting venom from a claw within their gnathopod.[6]
Twelve families are currently recognised in the group:[7]