Takes the colour and the spiral banding of the sea whip it never leaves.
A shrimp of about 1 cm living exclusively on the whip corals of the genus Cirrhipathes. The body is translucent and patterned in bands and spirals of white, brown or red that continue the pattern of the host so precisely that the animal is generally found by looking for an interruption in the whip’s own banding rather than for a shrimp. Described in 2008, and separated from the similar Pontonides unciger on the host and on fine detail of the carapace.
A whip usually carries a pair, and often several pairs spread along its length, along with the goby Bryaninops yongei on the same stem. The shrimps move around the whip rather than along it when approached, which is the practical problem: they keep the coral between themselves and the diver, and the technique is to work slowly around the whip in one direction rather than to chase. Recorded from about 10 to 40 m wherever whip corals grow, which on a muck site means the deeper rubble and the bases of slopes.
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.