Hairy Squat Lobster

Description

Its scientific name is Lauriea siagiani named after the legendary Balinese dive guide, Wally Saigian who discovered it. Actually, L. siagiani is not really a lobster, but belongs to a group of crustaceans called Anomurans. They are decapod crustaceans, meaning they have ten appendages (legs). But unlike their relatives called brachyuran (the true crabs), the two rear appendages are small and are hidden under the shell, together with the respiratory organs or gills.
Lauriea siagiani is a small squat lobster, up to 15 millimetres long. Its body is almost translucent. Its legs show edges of intense, nearly fluorescent pinkish-purple color, with purple spots and lots of white hairs covering the entire body.

It differs from the only other species in the genus, Lauriea gardineri by a number of features, but most obviously by the coloration: L. gardineri is pale brown with darker bands.

Distribution and ecology

Lauriea siagiani is found around the giant sponge Xestospongia testudinaria, and has been recorded from Maylasia, Indonesia, the Philippines to South Japan. It feeds on plankton. The ‘hairs’ catch the particles in the water, and a pair of ‘un-hairy’ hind legs cleans the particles off the hairs then the lobster eats the captured particles.

Taxonomy

Lauriea siagiani was described in 1994 by Keiji Baba; the specific epithet commemorates Wilhelm Siagian, who collected the type material. The species had been previously illustrated by the photographer Roger Steene (as "Galathea sp."), from which Baba recognised that it must represent a new species.