''Palaemonetes pugio'' (daggerblade grass shrimp) is a small, transparent
shrimp with yellow coloring and brownish spots. It can be found in
estuarine and
tidal marsh
A tidal marsh (also known as a type of "tidal wetland") is a marsh found along rivers, coasts and estuaries which floods and drains by the tidal movement of the adjacent estuary, sea or ocean. Tidal marshes are commonly zoned into lower marshes ( ...
habitats throughout the western
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
and
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...
. ''Palaemonetes pugio'' has a smooth carapace and abdomen, as well as three pairs of legs. The second pair is the strongest, while the third pair lacks
chelae
A chela ()also called a claw, nipper, or pinceris a pincer (biology), pincer-like organ at the end of certain limbs of some arthropods. The name comes from Ancient Greek , through New Latin '. The plural form is chelae. Legs bearing a chela are ...
(claws). It reaches a length of around , and has a life span of around one year. Like most
grass shrimp
''Palaemonetes'', its common names include glass shrimp, ghost shrimp, feeder shrimp, is a genus of caridean shrimp comprising a geographically diverse group of fresh water, brackish and marine crustaceans. Conventionally, ''Palaemonetes'' incl ...
, it is a forager and feeds on a variety of items, including
microalgae. They themselves are consumed by
killifish
A killifish is any of various oviparous (egg-laying) cyprinodontiform fish (including families Aplocheilidae, Cyprinodontidae, Fundulidae, Profundulidae and Valenciidae). All together, there are 1,270 species of killifish, the biggest family ...
and other small foraging fish.
References
Further reading
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External links
Daggerblade Grass Shrimp*
Palaemonidae
Crustaceans of the Atlantic Ocean
Crustaceans described in 1949
Taxa named by Lipke Holthuis
{{Caridea-stub