Wednesday 8 January 2014

Donald Duck Shrimp

Image: Klaus Stiefel
Leander plumosus
Poor, old Donald Duck. Someone needs to tell that guy that blind rage and mean-spiritedness is not a good way of dealing with a speech impediment and an extraordinary lack of good fortune. I hope his shrimp learned that lesson because a shrimp's fury is more futile than most. Sad, but true.

It's the Donald Duck Shrimp, also known as the Plume Shrimp, the Long-nose Shrimp and a host of other names, many of which are like an innocent child in a supermarket loudly asking mummy, why does that man have such a big, hairy nose?


Video: liquidguru

The truth is, I have absolutely no idea why this shrimp has such a big, hairy nose. Or rostrum, to be more precise. Mr. plumosus here was discovered as recently as 1994 and it looks like very little is known about it.

We do at least know that it reaches about 3 cm (scarcely more than an inch) long and comes from the Indo-Pacific, where it glories in colours far more vibrant than the drab camouflage of its closest kin.

Image: prilfish
The Donald Duck Shrimp belongs to a family called Palaemonidae, within a subfamily that mostly contains carnivores who prey on various tiny creatures. The other Palaemonid subfamily contains lots of cleaner shrimp, those fellows who can sometimes be seen entering the mouth of the dragon to feed on parasites and bits of flesh caught between jagged teeth.

There's nothing to suggest that the Donald Duck Shrimp is one of these cleaners, regardless of its resemblance to a toothbrush.

7 comments:

Crunchy said...

OK, I get that he's got a big schnozola (technical term) that could be construed as a "duck bill," but what's so Donaldy about him?

Joseph JG said...

I have absolutely no idea. Maybe someone is just a huge Donald Duck fan? Or didn't realise that some ducks aren't Donald?

TexWisGirl said...

the platypus of shrimp!

Joseph JG said...

Haha! Yeah!

Porakiya said...

Hey, isn't that a Porcelain crab in the video?

Porakiya said...

Also, at least no one has called it the Daffy Duck Shrimp......yet

Joseph JG said...

They probably don't spray enough spit around to be comparable to Daffy.

And yes, looks like a Porcelain Crab in there!