The pale banded squat lobster on barrel sponges, sharing the host with its pink congener.
A squat lobster with a carapace of about 7 mm and a total length including the long chelipeds of about 2 cm, pale brown to cream with darker transverse banding across the carapace and the arms, and clothed in long setae. The shape is that of the group: a flattened body, a tail folded under, long slender chelipeds carried forward, and only three obvious pairs of walking legs.
The separation from Lauriea siagiani, the hairy squat lobster, is colour and nothing else in the field. That animal is bright pink to magenta with purple-red bands; this one is pale brown and banded. Both live on giant barrel sponges, Xestospongia testudinaria, and both occur on the same sponge often enough that a careful look at a colony that holds one is worth the time.
They sit on the outer wall and around the rim rather than down inside, and they sidle around the curve of the sponge away from a light, which is the difficulty in photographing them. Feeding is by filtration with setose mouthparts. Recorded from about 10 to 35 m, a range set by the depth at which large barrel sponges grow.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.
