Guernsey commercial crab and lobster fisherman, Clive Brown, was pulling up strings of crab pots off Pleinmont on Guernsey's south-west coast on 7 May 2013, when he noticed this tiny 3 to 4 mm long (with abdomen curled under body) bright orange amphipod, which he collected in a bucket for me to photograph.  He was potting in a water depth of about 25 to 30 metres.

Dutch marine biologist Marco Faasse identified this amphipod in the family acanthonotozomatidae "as Iphimedia eblanae, based on the two pointed processes on the hind margin of the basis of leg 6/7, the middle teeth (not just carinae) on the three pleon segments (segments with swimming legs) and the pointed coxa 2 (proximal to basis of leg 2)."

Jersey biologist Paul Chambers PhD wrote that this amphipod was last recorded in the Channel Islands over one century ago - by Walker and Hornell at Greve d'Azette in Jersey in 1896 and by Sinel and Norman in Herm in 1906/07.

This amphipod was returned alive to the sea on 12 May 2013.

File No. 070513 9417
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fishinfo@guernsey.net
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Axius stirhynchus 060511 ©RLLord 6725 smg
Axius stirhynchus Wood Waterman 060511 ©RLLord 6713 smg
Asian shore crab Hemigrapsus sanguineus Troy Waterman 260410 ©RLLord 9245 smg
Cyanea lamarckii with Hyperia sp Belle Greve Bay 110510 ©RLLord 9215 smg
Cyanea lamarckii with Hyperia sp Belle Greve Bay 110510 ©RLLord 9209 smg
Calappa crab Avola Sicily 020410 ©RLLord 1404 smg
Hemigrapsus sanguineus nr Vale Pond Tony Waterman 260409 ©RLLord 3402 smg
This scavenging or parasitic isopod was recovered by Guernsey commercial crab and lobster fisherman Clive Brown working his pots off Guernsey's south coast on 30 January 2008.  It fell out one of his crab pots and landed on the gunwale.  It had a total length of about 31 mm. 

Dr. Tammy Horton, an isopod and amphipod specialist at Southampton Oceanography Centre, has identified this isopod as belonging to the family aegidae.  It has seven pairs of pereiopods (legs).   The first three pairs are prehensile (suitable for gripping onto prey) but the fourth to seventh pair of pereiopods are ambulatory.  This is unlike the isopods in the family cymothoidae in which the fourth to seventh pair of pereipods are suitable for gripping onto prey.   

Some species in the family aegidae grow to a length of 60 mm.  They are carnivorous scavengers and opportunistic feeders.  They attach to fish to feed infrequently but when they do they gorge themselves on the fish's blood.  Isopods in this family have also attacked humans in the Caribbean.  

Photo taken of the live isopod in a Petri dish of seawater with a Canon A640 digital camera using an Epoque off camera flash with reflectors over a black paper background.  Contrast adjusted in Photoshop.
File No. 300108 2833
©RLLord
fishinfo@guernsey.net
Calappa crab Avola Sicily 020410 ©RLLord 1404 smg
Calappa crab Avola Sicily 020410 ©RLLord 1404 smg
Calappa crab Avola Sicily 020410 ©RLLord 1404 smg
See photo in original gallery.