DETAILS
- Discipline
NH: ZOOLOGY: INVERTEBRATES: CHELICERATES (SPIDERS, SCORPIONS, TICKS, HORSESHOE CRABS)
- Scientific Name
Pycnogonum littorale
- Common Name
Sea Spider
- Form
wet preserved
- Dimensions
overall: 52 mm x 13 mm x 13 mm 5 g
- Description
-
Sea spiders or Pycnogonida are a group of arthropods quite unlike any other. They have very reduced bodies and long legs which contain some of their digestive End reproductive organs. There are around 1300 known species found throughout the world’s oceans and although mostly seen in shallow waters they have been collected from over 7000 metres deep.
Sea spiders range in size from a few millimetres to about 90cm long and generally have four pairs of legs and a long proboscis that they use for feeding. They are predators and scavengers and eat marine invertebrates such as sea anemones and sponges.
This specimen was collected by Alexander Patience in the late 1800s. He was a keen naturalist who lived in Glasgow during the late 19th and early 20th century. He had a particular interest in crustaceans and other arthropods and he was responsible for discovering and naming several new species. - ID Number
1902.167.79
- Location
In storage
- Terms