Description: A large prawn usually 6 – 8 cm long, occasionally as large as 11 cm, with a translucent round body bearing red-brown and yellow lines. Legs also bear red-brown and yellow banding, yellow markings present on joints. Rostrum with 6-7 dorsal teeth, 2 behind the eye socket and 4-5 ventral teeth. Usually found in groups, and often in crevices alongside squat lobsters, crabs or conger eels.

Habitat: Found on lower rocky shores and sometimes in rockpools on the mid-shore, and at depths of up to 40 m in sublittoral. Also found in estuaries and seagrass beds.

Distribution: Found on all coasts around Britain and Ireland.

Similar Species: Could be confused with Palaemon elegans, careful inspection of rostrum to count number of teeth can clarify. Mandible palp in this species has 3 segments (requires microscopic examination).

Key Identification Features:

• Rounded body, translucent with red-brown and yellow banding.
• Legs have red-brown and yellow banding, with yellow marking on joints.
• Rostrum with 6-7 dorsal teeth.
• Mandible palp of 3 segments.

Distribution Map from NBN: Palaemon serratus at National Biodiversity Network mapping facility, data for UK.

iNaturalist: Palaemon serratus at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

WoRMS: Palaemon serratus at World Register of Marine Species. Accepted name: Palaemon serratus (Pennant, 1777). AphiaID: 107616.

Classification: Biota; Animalia; Arthropoda; Crustacea; Multicrustacea; Malacostraca; Eumalacostraca; Eucarida; Decapoda; Pleocyemata; Caridea; Palaemonoidea; Palaemonidae; Palaemon