Scyllarus pygmaeus facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Scyllarus pygmaeus |
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| Conservation status | |
Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Order: | Decapoda |
| Family: | Scyllaridae |
| Genus: | Scyllarus |
| Species: |
S. pygmaeus
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| Binomial name | |
| Scyllarus pygmaeus (Bate, 1888)
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| Synonyms | |
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The Scyllarus pygmaeus is a small type of slipper lobster. It lives in shallow waters in the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern part of the Atlantic Ocean. This lobster can grow up to 55 millimeters (about 2 inches) long. Because it is so small, people do not fish for it to eat. Scientists first described the young form of this lobster in 1885. The adult form was described a few years later in 1888, after the famous Challenger expedition.
What Does It Look Like?
The Scyllarus pygmaeus is the tiniest slipper lobster known. Females have a carapace (the hard shell covering their head and chest) about 11.5 millimeters long. Males are a little smaller, with a carapace about 10 millimeters long. Its whole body can grow up to 55 millimeters, but it's usually less than 40 millimeters.
This small size means S. pygmaeus is not caught by fishermen. Its body is usually a pale brownish or pinkish color. It also has patches of darker hairs.
Scyllarus pygmaeus looks a lot like a young Scyllarus arctus. Both species live in the same areas. However, you can tell them apart by a few key differences:
- The front part of the S. pygmaeus's belly segments has a groove with hairs. The S. arctus does not have this groove.
- The second belly segment of S. arctus has a sharp tip that points forward. In S. pygmaeus, this tip is rounded and points backward.
- S. pygmaeus has a cone-shaped bump on its fifth body segment. This bump is flatter in S. arctus.
- The back part of the first belly segment is wider in the middle for S. pygmaeus. For S. arctus, it is the same width all the way across.
Where Does It Live and What Does It Do?
Scyllarus pygmaeus lives in many places across the Mediterranean Sea. It is also found near islands in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. These islands include Madeira, the Canary Islands, and the Cape Verde Islands. It has not been seen off the coast of North Africa further east than Morocco.
This slipper lobster lives in waters from 5 to 100 meters deep. It is active at night. In shallower areas, it lives among Posidonia meadows, which are like underwater grass beds. Female lobsters carry eggs during June and August.
How It Got Its Name
The Scyllarus pygmaeus was first described in 1888 by Charles Spence Bate. He was part of the Challenger expedition, which explored the oceans. Bate named it "Arctus pygmaeus" after finding it near La Gomera in the Canary Islands. In the same report, he also described "Arctus immaturus" from the Cape Verde islands.
Later, in 1915, scientist Eugène Louis Bouvier realized that "Arctus immaturus" was just the young form of S. pygmaeus. Because of a rule in naming animals, S. pygmaeus became the official name. Even though S. pygmaeus is not rare in the Mediterranean Sea, people often confused it with the more common S. arctus. They thought S. pygmaeus was just a young S. arctus.
In 1960, Jacques Forest and Lipke Holthuis finally proved that S. pygmaeus does live in the Mediterranean Sea. They found old specimens in a museum in Naples, Italy.
The young form of S. pygmaeus was actually named even earlier than the adult. In 1885, Sarado described it as Nisto laevis in his book Étude sur les crustacés de Nice (which means "Study of the crustaceans of Nice").
The Food and Agriculture Organization suggests calling it the pygmy locust lobster in English. In French, it's called cigale naine, and in Spanish, it's cigarra enana. All these names mean "dwarf" or "pygmy" lobster.
