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Cleaner Shrimps & allies
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Summary
This interesting group of small benthic decapod crustaceans belongs to the Infraorder Stenopodidea. It includes only six species in two families in Australian waters, with the Banded Coral Shrimp always the most common and conspicuous.
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Nudibranchs
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Summary
Nudibranchs (naked-gilled sea-slugs) include some of the most colourful and flamboyant of sea creatures. There are around 3000 valid species in this Molluscan group. Many have bright and elaborate colour patterns as spectacular as those seen in some butterflies.
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Brown Tiger Prawn
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Summary
The Brown Tiger Prawn is a large, banded prawn growing to 235 mm in length. It occurs on mud or sandy mud, and is found in northern Australia from Shark Bay, WA, to central NSW.
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Barnacles
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Summary
Barnacles belong to a group of highly specialised crustaceans called the Cirripedia. Barnacles mostly feed on suspended particles in the water by opening the top plates of the shell and protruding their feathery legs (cirri) which trap microorganisms from the water flowing past. Seventy-three barnacle species have so far been found in south-eastern Queensland.
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Prawns & Shrimps
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Summary
Prawns and shrimps are an incredibly diverse group, with around 4000 species known from around the world, and about 900 in Australia. While they are primarily marine, they can be found in a variety of environments, ranging from intertidal pools to deep-sea hydrothermal vents; however they also are common in estuaries and fresh water.
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Garden Slater
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Summary
The Garden Slater belongs to a group of Crustacea called the Isopoda. Isopods sometimes resemble amphipods, but their bodies tend to be low and flattened rather than high and narrow. They are common in suburban gardens.
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Cooktown Ring-tailed Gecko
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Summary
The Cooktown Ring-tailed Gecko is found from Cape Melville to Mt Leswell and also on Stanley Island in the Flinders group, north-eastern Queensland. It is primarily an arthropod feeder but will also take small vertebrates (geckos and frogs).
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Mud & Coral 'Lobsters'
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Summary
These are typically clawed, burrow-dwelling animals that seem to be half-shrimp and half-lobster. They belong to the Infraorders Axiidea and Gebiidea, which include 12 families with over 100 species in Australian waters. These crustaceans occur in a wide variety of habitats, from the intertidal zone to the deep sea (2,500 metres or more).
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Purple-mouthed Kookaburra Whelk
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Summary
The Purple-mouthed Kookaburra Whelk is so named because of its striking profile resemblance to a perched kookaburra and the purple tinge around the aperture. In reality it is actually a species of triton - Family Cymatiidae. The species is distributed across the Indo-West Pacific.
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Common Freshwater & Terrestrial Crustaceans of Queensland
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Summary
Queensland has a diverse range of freshwater and terrestrial environments, from outback deserts to tropical rainforests. Although crustaceans are primarily a marine group, there are many species of freshwater crayfish and crabs. Desert specialists, such as the remarkable Shield Shrimp, have eggs that can survive many years in the parched desert clay before hatching in their thousands when the rains finally come.
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Banded Helmet
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Summary
The Banded Helmet is one of the more common species of the Helmet snail family (Cassidae) and is most often seen washed up as dead shells or shell pieces. It is found in subtropical and tropical Australia.
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Smooth Tusk Shell
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Summary
The Smooth Tusk Shell is one of the larger species of scaphopod. Like other tusk shells, it lives embedded in sand and the living animal is rarely seen. It is found Australia-wide.
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Common Garden Spiders
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Summary
Spiders are ubiquitous in gardens, houses and urban environments throughout Queensland, and a wide variety of species can easily be found, especially in the eastern tropics and subtropics. The species accounts below highlight some of the more frequently encountered species in Queensland backyards.
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Red-mouthed Banded Whelk
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Summary
The Red-mouthed Banded Whelk is a small species of predatory snail that may be found under large rocks and dead coral slabs from intertidal and shallow subtidal habitats to 15 m depth. It occurs in subtropical and tropical Australia.
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Zebra Volute
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Summary
The Zebra Volute lives in shallow, usually subtidal sand banks where it seeks out other snails and clams for food. The striped colour pattern on the shell (length to 50mm) gives the species its common name, but there are several other species of Australian volute which likewise have striped shells. It is found from Queensland to New South Wales only.
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Goose Barnacle
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Summary
The Goose Barnacle is found in the open sea, where it attaches to floating logs, planks and other flotsam. It is common in tropical Australia.
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Striped Marshfrog
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Summary
The Striped Marshfrog is light brown to grey-brown and marked with bold, dark longitudinal stripes. It is widespread in coastal eastern Australia and also occurs in Tasmania.
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Sydney Rock Oyster
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Summary
The Sydney Rock Oyster is the most ecologically and commercially important species of the oyster family from Australian waters. It is found along the east coast of Australia, and New Zealand.
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Red-mouthed Stromb
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Summary
The Red-mouthed Stromb is one of the most abundant and widespread of the Indo-Pacific stromb species. This species can be very common at certain muddy-sand, seagrass and lagoonal localities and is a prized food in many parts of Melanesia, and hence harvested commercially.
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Mantis Shrimps
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Summary
Mantis shrimps are exclusively marine, predatory crustaceans (Order Stomatopoda) that originated in the Cretaceous, and have remained remarkably similar in appearance for 100 million years. There are more than 100 genera and 450 species worldwide, with about 70 genera and 150 species recorded from Australia.
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