Periclimenes soror

Periclimenes soror
Starfish shrimp (Periclimenes soror) on a Culcita schmideliana.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Crustacea
Class:	Malacostraca
Order:	Decapoda
Infraorder:	Caridea
Family:	Palaemonidae
Genus:	Periclimenes
Species:	P. soror
Binomial name
Periclimenes soror Nobili, 1904

Periclimenes soror, also called the starfish shrimp, is a species of shrimp that lives as a symbiont with starfishes.Periclimenes soror is a species of little shrimp with a truncated rostris, and showing a wide variety of coats, but often with a distinctive white stripe or white dots pattern on the back. The rest of the body varies with the host starfish: it is often "a deep purple red" when living on Culcita, Protoreaster or Pentaceraster, but red with a white dorsal stripe when living on Acanthaster, and can also be transparent^[1] Adults reach up to 15 millimetres (0.6 in) long.^[2]

• 
  On an Acanthaster planci
• 
  On a Culcita schmideliana

Ecology and behaviour

It lives commensally on starfishes, including the "crown-of-thorns" starfish, Acanthaster planci.

Distribution

This species has a wide distribution across the Indo-Pacific and in the Gulf of Panama.^[1]

References