Head with small erect spine as well as small tubercles posterior to it. Low tubercles dorsally and ventrally. Gills elliptical and elongate. Antenna 1 1/3 length of body; Antenna 2 ¾ length of 1st and bearing setae on inner surface. Gnathopod 1 small, propodus a right triangle; palm minutely denticulate and bearing a pair of grasping spines at base. Gnathopod 2 palm slightly concave with neither poison tooth nor grasping spines; tooth-like projection at distal end of palm, dactyl rests on this when closed; dactyl slightly curved. Pereopods 5 - 7 palm with few short spine-like hairs as well as with low tubercles; palm of each with pair of grasping spines proximally; rest of palmar surface set with two rows of spine-like hairs, one on either side of a row of small denticulations.
Monterey peninsula. Not recorded north of Pacific Grove, CA.
Caprellid, "Ghost" or "Skeleton" shrimps, so called for their skeletal appearance. Amphipod crustaceans, easily distinguished by the elongate stick-like body form and reduction of the abdominal appendages. Head is generally fused with pereonite 1. Pereopods on first 2 segments (pereonites) are most flexible and called gnathopods; gnathopods 2 being the largest, used in defense, feeding and substrate attachment. In many species pereopods 3 and 4 may also be reduced or absent. Gills on pereonites 3 + 4, rarely on pereonite 2. Pereopods 5 - 7 much smaller than 1 + 2, used for clinging to the substratum. In females, brood plates (öostegites) develop on pereonites 3 + 4. Much remains to be learnt about their biology, ecology and in many cases changing distributions.
Hydroids
has never been illustrated and needs a thorough redescription' (Carlton, 2008). Deviant member of the C. acutifrons group. Very similar to C. pustulata Laubitz 1970. Distinguished by pointed and slim head spine, absence of a distal poison spine on gnathopod 2 (present in C. pustulata), low and small tuberculations (raised and large in C. pustulata) and elliptical gills (circular in C. pustulata). Martin 1977 provides table on differentiation of C. scabra, C. pustulata and C. pilipalma.
