Unidentified Squat Lobster (II) from Jervis Bay

Another critter from Jervis Bay.

This squat lobster colony was found at around 27m on a . There were more than a dozen individuals on the sponge, although I haven't found another colony. One individual is carrying eggs and has different markings, perhaps these photos show male and female of the same species??

They are a bit larger than the other species posted, closer to 20mm.

Can anyone help identify these?

cheers

Leander

I'm wondering if its Galathea australiensis ...

I've been looking through my books & on the web and can't really find a good match for this or the previous one you posted. this one might possibly be Galathea australiensis as you suggested but I don't know the amount of variation within the species. That first one is just spectacular - it's enough to start an upsurge in UW tourism by divers wanting to photograph it. But it's not in my books. Have you sent it to the crustacean departments at either the Museum in Victoria or the Australian Museum in Sydney? Or to Dave Harasti who's usually lurking around wetpixel somewhere? I could also send the pics to a friend who works on the family if you don't mind.

Leslie

I have forward it to the Aust Mus and also Victoria Museum, so that may yet identify it. CAAB has a lot of species listed that I haven't tracked down so it may be among them.

I'm keen to find out if it is known, so please pass on to anyone who might shed some light.

I dunno about the tourism ... people have been diving with them for years and not shown much interest

cheers

Leander

Gary Poore at the Museum of Victoria should be able to make an ID on this one. I'm sure you will get a response sooner or later...

Hi

there is a new (very expensive) book by Gary Poore, just published by CSIRO

there are around 30 colour plates, but only 4 galatheids are illustrated

none of your species corresponds to Galathea australiensis though (which is much duller)

but both are probably Galathea (s. lat.) sp. (there a number of other genera in S and SE Australia, but most include deepwater species

Poore's key to Galathea contains only 4 species, two may be eliminated (although one called G. magnifica appears to be verry close to the colourful one)

any chance to collect a few specimens of each species ?

cheerio

Art

Gary Poore wasn't able to identify either of the squat lobster (from the pics at least). His advice was that it was probably a Galathea. Also managed to get a plug in for the expensive book

I'm confused by Galathea australiensis ... Gary Poole's pic on the Museum of Victoria website seems to show a much different animal to the on the Australian Museum website (says it grows to 11cm - more than 5x size of the species in this post).

So it looks like these guys might be a mystery for a while longer

cheers

Lndr

Leander, my friend Roy Kropp couldn't identify your two species either. Possibly they're described from dead specimens so the color pattern is unknown or perhaps they're undescribed. If you want to pursue the matter try posting your pictures on CRUST-L which is a list server for crustacean specialists. Good luck -

Leslie

ah, unidentified squat lobsters from NSW, just got to love the little buggers.

I've found a couple of them in Nelson Bay that are still waiting to be identified, anyone out there got any idea what this little fella is? About 1cm long.