Fabricius, 1780
Description:
Body thickset in form, delicately pubescent above, with the lateral processes closely crowded together and shorter than the trunk. Cephalon about as long as the three following segments together, neck short and thick, frontal part rather broad. Abdomen comparatively small, cylindrical and directed somewhat upwards.
Ocular tubercle comparatively low, tip obtusely rounded. Proboscis shorter than the cephalon. Chelifores small, densely and shortly hispid, hand considerably shorter than the scape, with the palm uniformly broad and longer than the fingers, fingers with a prominent angle with the palm. Palps small, 2nd segment the largest; last segment rounded oval, hardly shorter than the penultimate segment.
Ovigerous legs with ten segments present in both sexes; about the length of the body; marginal spines small, somewhat bent and indistinctly serrated.
Ambulatory legs shortly hispid, uncommonly robust, somewhat compressed, scarcely three times longer than the body; tibia 2 uniformly broad, about two and a half times longer than the terminal section; tarsus as broad as long; propodus about three times as long, somewhat swollen in its basal part, with a row of about eight strong spines on the inner edge, increasing in length outwards; terminal claw half as long as the propodus, strongly bent; auxiliary claws well developed, half the length of the terminal claw.
Length of the body up to 1 mm.
Habitat:
Sublittoral, down to 200 m.
Distribution:
Usually found in the cold seas of the North Atlantic, Iceland, Greenland, Spitzbergen and west of Iceland, it sometimes reaches the northern parts of the British Isles and Norway.