Eualus occultus

Charlotte Bolton Teeny-tiny shrimp on Thatcher's Reef, just south of Torquay (south Devon), 13m bsl. Not convinced they're Pandalus or even the same species? Any suggestions gratefully received - thanks!

David Kipling Nice red siphons too

Charlotte Bolton Please feel free to ID the siphons too David ;-)

David Kipling What do you think, Charlotte?

Charlotte Bolton About these siphons, crustacea or more generally?

David Kipling Red siphons.

Richard Girdler They're red ;)

David Kipling And formally speaking I was referring to the red siphons at the front, not the Dendrodoa-esque ones in the top RHS...

Charlotte Bolton The hive mind here (me, Dawn - she says hello - and Richard) is undecided...

Charlotte Bolton We are all looking at the same thing then. So far we've decided that Pyura are stripy, Polycarpa are further apart and limp, and, umm, we can't remember the rest...

Peter H van Bragt 3rd picture is unmistakenly Thoralus cranchii the other shrimp could very well be a Pandalus sp.

David Kipling Argh!!!

Charlotte Bolton Thankyou Peter!

David Kipling A few more siphons for Dawn (who should know better) and Charlotte.

Richard Girdler Stop hijacking my thread :p

David Kipling You know the shrimp now, all we need is the siphon ID Richard :)

Erling Svensen It is very, very difficult to see the difference between the T. Cranchii, the Eualus pusiolus and Eualus occultus. We need really good Pictures of the head where it is possible to see spikes, teets on the rostrum etc. So I do not agree with you, Peter. :-)

Peter H van Bragt Erling, the uplifted tail is a very characteristic posture for T. cranchii

Marco Faasse The largest shrimp looks like Pandalina brevirostris, the smaller one like an Eualus. The genus Thoralus has been synonymised with Eualus.

Richard Girdler Sorry about the quality erling but it was an 'accidental' shot, didn't realise they were there until I downloaded camera - even then I didn't see the lower right shrimp straight away

Dany Ros

Peter Glanvill Were they spotted by you at the time or seen later? with my eye sight I would never see them. I failed to see any pygmy seahorses in New Guinea because of this problem. At that size if they aren't juveniles they could be something entirely new I suspect.

Dany Ros I only spotted them because there were black 2 dots on a white patch! I was quite lucky because conditions were not good: surgy, upside down and in a recess!

Marco Faasse Their first antennae and their humpback look like (juvenile) Thoralus cranchii, which is not an obligatory octocorallian associate. Octocorallian associates are known from the Mediterranean (Balssia?). So, interesting enough to investigate further ...

Dany Ros A marine biologist friend of mine thinks it could be Eualus occultus .