Eudorella hirsuta

(Sars, 1869)

Description
Body extremely slender and elongated, with the integuments rather densely hairy. Carapace with the anterior edges coarsely denticulate throughout their whole length, and in the upper part clothed with numerous stiff, anteriorly curving bristles, exhibiting, moreover, below the middle a well-marked, though rather small sinus; antero-lateral corners not produced.
Carapace of (young) male with the anterior edges unarmed, and without any distinct sinus. Superior antennae about as in Eudorella truncatula. First pair of legs comparatively more robust, with the penultimate joint scarcely longer than the antepenultimate one; second pair with the antepenultimate joint unusually elongated and narrowed, last joint comparatively short. Uropods resembling in structure those in Eudorella truncatula, but having the apical spine of the inner ramus well defined at the base.
It differs from Eudorella truncatula by in the still more slender and elongated form of body, and still more in the rather different armature of the anterior edges of the carapace. In the structure of the two anterior pairs of legs also, well-marked differences are found to exist. Even in young specimens the carapace has become somewhat transformed, both the marginal denticles and the sinus of the anterior edges having been lost.

Size
Length up to 5 mm.

Colour
Whitish.

Ecology
Bathyal on muddy bottoms.

Depth range
Down to about 300 to 400 m.

Distribution in the North Sea
Northern North Sea (?), Skagerrak, Oslofjord.

World distribution
Atlantic Ocean west off Ireland; Arctic seas, N Norwegian coast.

[After Sars, 1900]

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