Saron shrimp larva
A late-stage larva of a Saron shrimp, already spotted and bristled like the adult, drifting in open water at night.
This is a shrimp of the genus Saron near the end of its life in open water, photographed on a blackwater dive in the Lembeh Strait. It already has much of the adult’s appearance. The body is orange-brown and translucent, covered with round spots ringed in pale green and yellow, and tufts of fine bristles stand out from the carapace and along the legs. The walking legs are green, the eye is large and the antennae are long and thin.
Saron belongs to the family Hippolytidae. Like other caridean shrimps, the female carries her eggs under the abdomen until they hatch, and the young are released into the plankton as larvae. They moult through a series of stages, gaining limbs and bristles at each one, and the last of them leaves open water and settles on the bottom. An animal as fully formed as this one is at or near that final stage.
The settled shrimp lives in rubble, under rocks and in dead coral, and comes out onto open surfaces after dark, as described on the marbled shrimp page. The World Register of Marine Species lists five species of Saron, and they are separated on adult characters that a larva does not yet show, so the animal is named here only to genus. Younger shrimp larvae in general are described on the shrimp larva page.
Where to find:
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.
