European Sand Cumacean

• Its outline, with a swollen front end and a slender tail, has earned it the name of comma shrimp.
• It is a staple in the diet of juvenile flatfish and of wading birds on sandy beaches.
• Cumaceans have an unmistakable outline: a swollen carapace at the front and a long, narrow abdomen, which has earned them the name comma shrimps.
• It buries itself in the sand by day and comes out to swim at night, a pattern that makes it regular prey for flatfish and waders.
• It feeds by filtering the organic film and the diatoms clinging to the sand grains.

Habitat and environment

Fine intertidal sand on beaches of the north-eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean

Sources consulted: Bibliografía de Cumacea del Atlántico nororiental; MarLIN

The pins mark the parks and dive sites where its presence is documented.