Alternate name: Coon-stripe Shrimp
Category: Crabs and Shrimp view all from this category
Description 5 3/4" (146 mm) long, 1 1/4" (32 mm) high. Large. Pale red, with irregular longitudinal blue stripes and occasional white spots on body; legs striped brown and white. Beak curved upward, long, slender, continuing as ridge on carapace; many teeth above and below on beak; 4 teeth on ridge behind level of eye socket. 2nd walking legs unequal, end joint beaded with many constrictions. Tailpiece with 6 spines on each side.
Habitat In bays, estuaries, and eelgrass beds, occasionally in tidepools; from low-tide line to water 600' (182 m) deep.
Range Alaska to c. California.
Discussion The Dock Shrimp is a functional male when young, subsequently changing to a fertile female. The Main Shrimp (P. borealis) is fished commercially off New England. It is 7" (18 cm) long and 1 1/2" (38 mm) high. Its beak is longer than its carapace, and it has a spine in the middle of the back of the 3rd and 4th abdominal segments. It ranges from the Arctic to Cape Cod.
