Lepidophthalmus turneranus | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Subphylum: | Crustacea |
Class: | Malacostraca |
Order: | Decapoda |
Family: | Callianassidae |
Genus: | Lepidophthalmus |
Species: | L. turneranus |
Binomial name | |
Lepidophthalmus turneranus (White, 1861) |
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Synonyms | |
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External identifiers for Lepidophthalmus turneranus | |
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Encyclopedia of Life | 324988 |
ITIS | 552841 |
NCBI | 576630 |
WoRMS | 477719 |
Lepidophthalmus turneranus (formerly Callianassa turnerana), the Cameroon ghost shrimp, is a species of "ghost shrimp" or "mud lobster" that lives off the coast of West Africa. It occasionally erupts into dense swarms, one of which resulted in the naming of the country Cameroon.
Lepidophthalmus turneranus is found in lagoons and estuaries, including almost fresh water, around the Gulf of Guinea from Togo to Congo.
Adults reach a total length of 5.5–14.5 centimetres (2.2–5.7 in). The rostrum ends in three or five teeth, a featured shared with the Madagascan species L. grandidieri. In juveniles, the teeth may be missing. There is a sexual dimorphism in the form of the cheliped (claw-bearing appendage): females have a "deep crescent-shaped depression" near the base of the inside of the claw's fixed finger, while males lack this depression.
Lepidophthalmus turneranus lives in burrows in mud. Every three to five years, vast swarms form in estuaries, and copulation occurs outside the burrow. When James Aspinall Turner presented the first specimens to the British Museum, he noted that:
... this long-bodied Crustacean appears periodically in the river in prodigious numbers, which disappear in the course of ten days or a fortnight. The natives are very fond of them, as they are delicious eating; and as soon as they make their appearance in the river, the men here leave their usual pursuits to catch them.