Sea-spider  (Nymphon gracile)

Description

The sea-spiders, or pycogonids, are an unusual group of marine arthropods, which are completely unrelated to terrestrial spiders, despite superficially resembling them (3). The body is slender, segmented, and divided into two regions, the head and the trunk (2). The head features a number of pairs of appendages, including two pairs of feeding appendages (chelifores) with pincers at the tips, a proboscis with the mouth at the end, and both sexes have a pair of egg-carrying 'legs' (2). The trunk bears four pairs of long, spindly legs, and has a small projection at the rear called the abdomen (2).

left