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Cornish Red Data (2009)

The descriptive text, below the map, is from the Cornish Red Data Book (2009). The map on this web page depicts the organisms distribution and shows the records made pre-2000 and those made since.

Rissoides desmaresti - A mantis shrimp



Range & Status

This large, elongate, burrowing shrimp (to 10cm), with chelipeds (claws) characteristically mantis-like for capturing prey, is a rare species in British waters, found from the lower shore to about 40m depth. Small numbers were caught in trawls on the muddier Rame-Eddystone grounds between 1900-1952. More recently, 1999, an extensive bed of this species was found off Pwhellheli/Abersoch, North Wales, (Bamber, 2008), with other records from off the Isle of Wight, Lyme Bay, Dorset (2001) and off Selsey Bill, West Sussex (2002). The larvae, presumably recruitments from further south in the Bay of Biscay, are occasionally found in tow-nettings during the summer months.

Source:

I.J. Bennallick, S. Board, C.N. French, P.A. Gainey, C. Neil, R. Parslow, A. Spalding and P.E. Tompsett. eds. 2009. Red Data Book for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. 2nd Edition.Croceago Press.

The Cornish Red Data Book Project was led by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Federation for Biological Recorders (CISFBR). The full text and species accounts (minus the maps) are available on the CISFBR website.