Crustaceans

 

Calanus glacialis - the biggest copepod of Arctic. The specimens with the length of 0.5 cm are usual. The marine calanoids are filtrators which feed on diatoms.

 

Nebalia bipes - the specimen of a very interesting order Leptostraca. Leptostracans are the transitional link between very primitive phyllopods and malacostracans (wich contain the most of well-known crustaceans like krill, crabs, shrimps, woodlice e.c.)

Nebalias are not numerous in the White sea.

 

Diastylis rathkei. This is a Cumacean. Cumaceans are small strange crustaceans which bury themselves in the bottom leaving their pseudorostrum (a small "beak" at the end of carapax) above the surface.

 

You can see here a small shoal of mysids (Mysis sp.) with luminous eyes.

 

The only White sea hermit crab - Pagurus pubescens. These crabs reach 7-8 cm in the leg-spread, they are rather big. The only shell suitable for such big specimens is Neptunea.

 

And this is the only White sea crab - Hyas araneus. Unfourtunately it's dead.

 

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