''Belzebub hanseni'', the ghost shrimp or ghost prawn, is a small planktonic and benthic species of prawn from the family

Luciferidae Luciferidae is a family of prawns. These prawns are small, characterised by bioluminescence and the loss or reduction of some appendages. They are predators of tiny planktonic crustaceans for which their third pereiopod is adapted to capture b ...

Description

''Belzebub hanseni'' has an elongated appearance, looking as if it is a prawn that has been stretched, and it is transparent. The

carapace A carapace is a Dorsum (biology), dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tor ...

is extremely laterally compressed and the head section is longer and narrower than the thorax which causes the eyes and antennae being widely separated from the mouthparts. The rostrum is short and has a sharp point. It has three pairs of pereiopods instead of the normal five, with the third pair bearing chelae. In males the telson has two distinct projections on the ventral surface.

Distribution

''Belzebub hanseni'' is found in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea south to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

as far south as Tasmania. It has colonised the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...

and its associated lakes such as the Great Bitter Lake from the Red Sea and has been found in the south eastern Mediterranean Sea. It was originally found in Egyptian waters in the 1920s but then apparently was not recorded until 2008-2011 when numbers were found off the coasts of Israel suggesting that the widening of the Suez Canal had allowed ''B. hanseni'' to establish a population in the Mediterranean, the process known as Lessepsian migration.

Biology

''Belzebub hanseni'' is a dominant member of the zooplankton off Australia and Tasmania. They are predators of tiny planktonic crustaceans for which their third pereiopod is adapted to capture by having thick, curved spines which cover the limb.

Taxonomy

''Belzebub hanseni'' was originally named as ''Lucifer hanseni'' by the Italian

carcinologist A carcinologist is a scientist who studies crustaceans or is otherwise involved in carcinology Carcinology is a branch of zoology that consists of the study of crustaceans, a group of arthropods that includes lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill, ...

Giuseppe Nobili after its bioluminescent properties, ''Lucifer'' means light bearer and after Hans Jacob Hansen a Danish zoologist who described many collections of several crustacean taxa collected by expeditions. However a cladistic analysis of the Luciferidae discovered that there were two clades and the new clade was named '' Belzebub'', with ''B. hanseni'' at the type species, as a pun on Lucifer being one of the other names for

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q30590793 Dendrobranchiata Beelzebub Crustaceans described in 1915