Homola barbata

The Homola barbata is a benthic decapod of a few centimetres living in the Mediterranean and on the two sides of tropical and temperate Atlantic between 10 and 682 m of depth, even if rarely goes down under the 100 m. The length of the body may reach 4 cm with 10 cm limbs, but usually is smaller and it is not easy to sight it, depth apart, due to the mimetic look emphasized by an unusual hairiness covering the legs and the claws. The head is thorny with a clear protective function. It eats algae, small mollusks and corpses. To escape the numerous predators patrolling hungry on the bottoms, has learnt to swim forward, backward and sideways beating the legs © Giuseppe Mazza