Some great days Scuba Diving around Manado/ Bunaken Marine Park the last few weeks with heaps and heaps of macro life and also a few unusual encounters.
The Skeleton Shrimp is one of the unusual encounters of recent weeks, these are Crustaceans of the infraorder Caprellida, the name denotes their threadlike slender body which allows them to virtually disappear amongst the fine filaments of seaweed, hydroids and bryozoans.
The Skeleton Worm moves much the same way as an inchworm as it extends its forearms and retracts its legs, not unsimilar the the movement of a caterpillar; the male is slightly larger than the female and darker in color, measuring about 12 mm in length.
It could be that they are around Bunaken at this time of the year for breeding as many of the ones photographed seemed to have unusually large brood pouches (see photo), this is where they keep their eggs till they hatch, research shows that the female will kill the male once the eggs have been fertilized....nice one girls!!!
Another unusual fact is the similarity between The Worms in MIB 2 and the Skeleton Shrimp, though to be honest I haven't seen any of these Shrimps drink Coffee yet !!!
Skeleton Shrimp
The Worms from MIB 2
