Lives on the underside and folds of giant barrel sponges.
Bright pink to magenta with purple-red banding on the carapace and the long chelipeds, and the whole animal clothed in long white to translucent setae — the combination of pink and hairiness is the identification. Sizes quoted for it differ by a factor of three because they measure different things: about 7 mm is the carapace, about 2 cm is the whole animal including the arms. It is separated from its congener Lauriea gardineri, which is pale brown with darker bands. Worth knowing that the genus was recently revised using molecular data and five new species were described, “genetically distinct yet morphologically very similar” — and this species was not among the material examined. Hairy squat lobsters photographed across the Indo-Pacific may well not all be one animal.
Found on giant barrel sponges, Xestospongia testudinaria, on the outer wall and rim rather than down inside, and it sidles round the sponge away from your light, which is the whole difficulty of photographing it. Several often share one sponge. It filter-feeds with setose mouthparts. Recorded from Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan at roughly 7 to 30 m — again a range set by where barrel sponges and divers overlap rather than by the animal.
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.
