Marine Species Identification Portal : Gnathia vorax

(Lucas, 1849)

Description
— Praniza. Description not available. Pereion segments 3-5 fused and inflated.
— Male. Only five pairs of ambulatory pereiopods. Cephalon fused with two pereion segments, limbs of the second fused segment modified as flattened pylopods, which cover the mouthparts ventrally. Adult male pylopod of two or three articles. Front of the cephalon with a deep central concavity with a fairly acute median forward projection; lateral tooth of the mandible closely applied to the mandible itself. Last pereion segment reduced and without limbs; best seen in males, where it is narrow and equal in width to the pleon segments. Mandibles large, projecting in front of the cephalon and being forceps-like.

Size
Size of praniza unknown; male length 5-7 mm.

Depth range
Offshore

Distribution in the North Sea
Northern North Sea.

World distribution
NE Atlantic Ocean, including the Mediterranenan.

[description after Monod, 1926]

Gnathia vorax