Biodiversity & Conservation

Speckled sea louse - Eurydice pulchra

Eurydice pulchra

Image www.seasurvey.co.uk - Eurydice pulchra.
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Distribution map

Eurydice pulchra recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

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Eurydice pulchra is not listed under any importance categories.

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy Taxon English term
Phylum Arthropoda Arthropods, joint-legged animals, e.g. insects, crustaceans & spiders
Class Malacostraca Crabs, lobsters, sand hoppers and sea slaters
Authority Leach, 1815
Recent synonyms None
Map icon Recorded Distribution in Britain and Ireland Widespread on open coast and estuarine sandy beaches, with reduced abundance in south-east England.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Found in the intertidal zone, on fine to medium grained sandy shores. Eurydice pulchra occupies a middle shore zone, but its distribution shifts up shore on spring tides and down shore on neap tides.
Text page icon Description A small and distinctive 'louse-like' isopod. The body is flattened with an oval outline. It has large eyes, positioned laterally and a long second pair of antennae. It may be pale grey to brown in colour, with black spots covering all surfaces of the body.
Identifying features
  • Chitinous body dorso-ventrally flattened, up to 8 mm in length.
  • Thorax broader than abdomen giving oval outline.
  • Large lateral eyes.
  • One pair of short antennae, second pair about two thirds of body length, with 4 segments in basal region.
  • All thoracic (pereon) segments except the first, have conspicuous lateral expansions (Coxal plates).
  • Coxal plate on 6th thoracic segment, extends sharply backwards.
  • Telson (tail piece) is rounded, fringed with long setae, flanked on each side by two short spines.
  • Uropods (flat plates) lie on underside of tail piece and conceal pleopods (respiratory plates, that also beat to create a current of water for swimming).
  • Pale grey or brown in colour.
  • Black spots (chromatophores) on upper and lower surface of body, and along the sides are particularly characteristic.
Additional information icon Additional information British coastal isopods have been described by Naylor (1972, 1990). A second intertidal species of Eurydice, Eurydice affinis Hansen, is also found on British shores. It is distinguished from Eurydice pulchra by an overall paler appearance, with black spots only on its dorsal surface. In Britain it has a more restricted distribution than Eurydice pulchra, from south-west England into North Wales, where it occurs amongst populations of Eurydice pulchra.

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This review can be cited as follows:

Georgina Budd 2007. Eurydice pulchra. Speckled sea louse. Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme [on-line]. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [cited 09/02/2010]. Available from: <http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesinformation.php?speciesID=3322>