Periclimenes soror
| Periclimenes soror | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Starfish shrimp (Periclimenes soror) on a Culcita schmideliana. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Order: | Decapoda |
| Infraorder: | Caridea |
| Family: | Palaemonidae |
| Genus: | Periclimenes |
| Species: | P. soror |
| Binomial name | |
| Periclimenes soror Nobili, 1904 | |
Periclimenes soror, also called the starfish shrimp, is a species of shrimp that lives as a symbiont with starfishes.Periclimenes soror is a species of little shrimp with a truncated rostris, and showing a wide variety of coats, but often with a distinctive white stripe or white dots pattern on the back. The rest of the body varies with the host starfish: it is often "a deep purple red" when living on Culcita, Protoreaster or Pentaceraster, but red with a white dorsal stripe when living on Acanthaster, and can also be transparent[1] Adults reach up to 15 millimetres (0.6 in) long.[2]
On an Acanthaster planci
On a Culcita schmideliana
Ecology and behaviour
It lives commensally on starfishes, including the "crown-of-thorns" starfish, Acanthaster planci.
Distribution
This species has a wide distribution across the Indo-Pacific and in the Gulf of Panama.[1]
References
- 1 2 A. J. Bruce (1982). "The shrimps associated with Indo-West Pacific echinoderms, with the description of a new species in the genus Periclimenes Costa, 1844 (Crustacea: Pontoniinae)" (PDF). Australian Museum Memoirs. 16: 191–216.
- ↑ Isabella Gordon (1939). "Redescription of Periclimenes soror Nobili (Crustacea, Decapoda)" (PDF). Annals and Magazine of Natural History. ser. 11. 4 (21): 395–400. doi:10.1080/00222933908527002.