species: Lysiosquillina maculata in Lizard Island area: all known taxa (Lizard Island Field Guide)
Lizard Island area: all known taxa > Animalia > Arthropoda > Crustacea > Malacostraca > Stomatopoda > Lysiosquillidae > Lysiosquillina > Lysiosquillina maculata (gallery)
Lysiosquillina maculata


©Damaris Torres-Pulliza: Lysiosquillina maculata, rarely seen outside its burrow, at Mangrove Beach, Lizard Island.

©Mark Shepherd: Lysiosquillina maculata at the entrance to its burrow in Watson's Bay, Lizard Island. Note white spots on the eyes.

©Roy Caldwell: Lysiosquillina maculata male (top) and female (bottom)

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Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Arthropoda
Class Malacostraca
Order Stomatopoda
Family Lysiosquillidae
Genus Lysiosquillina
Species Lysiosquillina maculata

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Lizard Island Field Guide
Lizard Island area: all known taxa

Colours

                        

Distinguishing features

The largest stomatopod, reaching 40 cm in length. Lives in monogamous pairs in deep u-shaped burrows in shallow sandy areas. Pale with transverse bands. Comb-shaped spearing appendage with 10- 11 teeth used for catching fish. Bilobed eyes covered with white spots. (Roy's List accessed 10 Oct 2018, link below)

Size

  • From 1.5 cm to 40 cm (Length according to Roy's List accessed 10 Oct 2018, link below.)

Synonyms

Similar taxa

Distribution


©Atlas of Living Australia: Australian distribution

Local abundance

  • Lizard Island: This species is fairly common in shallow sandy areas all around the island. Their presence can be detected by their u-shaped burrows with entrances 4 to 5 cm in diameter and 1 to 1.5 metres apart, sometimes closed with a mucus/sand cap.

Web resources

References

  • Blanco, M.M. and S.N. Patek (2014). Muscle trade-offs in a power-amplified prey capture system. Evolution, 68: 1399-1414. LIRS catalog number 1777.
  • Feller, K.D. and T.W. Cronin (2016). Spectral absorption of visual pigments in stomatopod larval photoreceptors. Journal of Comparative Physiology A, 202: 215-223. LIRS catalog number 1997.
  • Feller, K.D., J.H. Cohen and T.W. Cronin (2015). Seeing double: visual physiology of double-retina eye ontogeny in stomatopod crustaceans, Journal of Comparative Physiology A, 201: 331-339. LIRS catalog number 1876.
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