Ambush Site Selection by a Green Bamboo Pit Viper: Relation to Prey Abundance and Comparison between Juveniles and Adults

The extremely thin and leaf-like larvae of spiny and slipper lobsters are one of the amazing larval forms of marine creatures and called “phyllosoma”. Even more extraordinary is the phyllosoma of some species has a very large body with a size as large as a human adult hand and amongst the largest larvae known for marine invertebrates.  The large size of these giant phyllosomae, however, do not make them common amongst plankton collection, and therefore, they are still poorly known.   Giant phyllosoma is now newly recorded off Taiwanese waters. This giant phyllosoma from Taiwan is for the first time confirmed to be the final stage of the slipper lobster Parribacus antarcticus by DNA barcoding.  A key to the different phyllosoma stages of this slipper lobster is provided.

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