Marine Species Identification Portal : Scarlet lobsterette

Norman, 1882

Diagnosis:
Rostrum with two pairs of lateral teeth in basal part. Median groove of rostrum failing to reach the anterior pair of lateral rostral teeth. The supraorbital spine is followed by a post supraorbital spine. Distance between supraorbital spine and gastric tubercle about 2/3 of the distance between gastric tubercle and postcervical groove. Pleura of second abdominal somite with a spine on anterior margin. Abdomen with dorsomedian carina on second to sixth somites. Exopod of uropod with diaeresis. Anterior margin of pleura of second abdominal somite with one or two spines in basal half. Telson without mediodorsal spine in basal part.

Type:
Type locality: "Knight Errant" August 10, 1880. Station 4; in 555 fathoms (Norman, 1882). Norman evidently made an error in the station number, as the date and depth given by him are those of Station 30 and not Station 4. The position of Station 30 in the Faeroe Channel is 59°33'N 7°14'W, 555 fms = 1O15 m, bottom mud. Whereabouts of type unknown, not in BM.

Geographical Distribution:
Eastern Atlantic between 61°N and 24°S (Faeroe Islands to Namibia). Records of the species from the Indo-West Pacific region refer most probably to N. sulcata.

Habitat and Biology:
Deep sea from 470 to 1804 m, mostly between 900 and 1400 m; bottom mud.

Size:
Maximum total length 10.3 cm; ovigerous females are 8 to t0 cm long.

Interest to Fisheries:
Only potential. The fact that the species is rather small and inhabits great depths makes its suitability for a fishery unlikely, although sometimes it is taken in numbers (RV J.E. PILLSBURY took respectively 16 and 31 specimens at a single station off respectively the Ivory Coast and Liberia).

Scarlet lobsterette (Nephropsis atlantica)