(Rathke, 1799)
Description:
Body rather robust, somewhat stouter anteriorly, lateral processes well defined, hardly longer than the body width. Cephalon somewhat longer than the succeeding one, with the frontal part very short and slightly incurved at the middle of the anterior margin. Abdomen comparatively small, oval, unarmed.
Ocular tubercle obtusely conic, the four eyes rather small, placed closer to the base than to the tip of the tubercle. Proboscis nearly half as long as the rest of the body, cylindrical, truncated at the tip. Chelifores longer than the proboscis; chela somewhat shorter than the scape. Palps absent.
Ovigerous legs only in male, with five segments, nearly as long as the body, exclusive of proboscis; sharply bent in a sigmoid curve; 3rd segment longest; last segment a little shorter than the penultimate, with three strong, unguiform spines on the inner margin near the base, and a row of more slender spines along either side.
Ambulatory legs rather powerful, about 2.5 times as long as the body, almost bare. Femur the largest; tibia 1 and 2 about equal in length; tarsus irregularly triangular; propodus about three times longer than broad, inner margin at the base armed with six strong spines; terminal claw a little more than half as long as the propodus; auxiliary claws plainly projecting, but small.
Colour red or brownish. Length of the body in females, taken from the tip of the proboscis to the posterior end of the abdomen up to 3 mm; the extent between the points of the ambulatory legs reaching 20 mm.
Habitat:
In the shallow sublittoral, but also found at a depth of nearly 200 m.
Distribution:
Widespread from the north Atlantic, Greenland and Norway, to France.