Range & Status

This large, elongate, burrowing shrimp (to 10cm), with chelipeds (claws) characteristically mantis-like for capturing prey, is a rare species in British waters, found from the lower shore to about 40m depth. Small numbers were caught in trawls on the muddier Rame-Eddystone grounds between 1900-1952. More recently, 1999, an extensive bed of this species was found off Pwhellheli/Abersoch, North Wales, (Bamber, 2008), with other records from off the Isle of Wight, Lyme Bay, Dorset (2001) and off Selsey Bill, West Sussex (2002). The larvae, presumably recruitments from further south in the Bay of Biscay, are occasionally found in tow-nettings during the summer months.