An elongated little crab, up to 2 cm (0.8 in), that spends its life gripping one strand of wire coral or a gorgonian branch, oriented along it so that the outline disappears. Colour follows the host - white, yellow, brown - and the back is covered in low tubercles that break up the shape further.
Wire corals grow as single unbranched whips several metres long on deeper slopes, and the crab is usually found in a pair, one animal on either side of the strand. It feeds on plankton and mucus taken from the host. Because both host and crab are most common below 20 m (65 ft), this is a deeper find than most reef crabs, and the practical way to spot one is to run a torch slowly along a whip rather than to scan the water. The same strand often carries a goby and a shrimp as well - a whip coral is a small ecosystem in its own right.
- elongated body gripping a single coral strand
- colour matches the host - white, yellow or brown
- pointed rostrum, back covered in low tubercles
- length up to 2 cm
