Rugose Squat Lobster

• Despite looking like a miniature lobster, it is more closely related to the hermit crabs than to the true lobsters.
• It swims backwards at speed by flexing its abdomen sharply when it feels threatened.
• It is neither a crab nor a lobster: squat lobsters are anomurans, more closely related to hermit crabs, and carry the abdomen folded under the body rather than extended.
• It has very long claws, far longer than the rest of the body, which it holds out in front of it.
• It swims backwards with flicks of the abdomen when threatened, as lobsters do.
• It is an opportunistic scavenger, and turns up often as bycatch in Norway lobster fisheries.

Habitat and environment

Rock, gravel and muddy bottoms with shelter, between 10 and 200 m

Sources consulted: Marine Life Information Network (MarLIN); Ingle, British Crabs; SeaLifeBase