Paromola cuvieri

The Paromola cuvieri is a large-sized decapod frequent in the Mediterranean but also in Canary Islands, Azores, Cabo Verde and along the eastern Atlantic coast. It loves the sandy bottoms with emerging rocky blocks between the 80 and 350 m of depth, but its has been found also at 1212 m. The carapace, wider than long, red, orange or pale brown, measures just over 20 cm, but the legs reach the 120 cm. The fore claws, that have black calipers, are supported by arms with a double joint thicker than the legs that must be relatively light in order not to sink into the mud. The males are usually bigger than the females. Often this species gets camouflaged gluing on the carapace sponges or other organisms of the deep coralliferous. It preys all what it can grasp: crustaceans, mollusks, echinoderms, cephalopods and fishes, but overall is a scavenger of the sea looking for corpses © Giuseppe Mazza