Cornish Biodiversity Network - Supporting Wildlife Recording
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.
Range & Status
A rare species found in crab pots and trawls in the western English Channel. It is also found beneath rock overhangs and in caves in depths 9-55m. Recently, 2007, it was recorded for the first time from south-west Ireland, its most northerly site to date. Elsewhere it occurs in the Channel Islands, Brittany and south through the Bay of Biscay, Portugal and the Mediterranean to north Africa (Mauritania). It also occurs in the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands. There are at least nine old, late 19th/early 20th century records from the Cornish coastline. In recent years (post-1996) this species seems to have become more frequent in the western English Channel with at least 11 records, all from the Isles of Scilly and the south coast of Cornwall. Some of these specimens have been gravid females.
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.