Cloridopsis dubia, the "amazing spearer"

Gonodactylus

Gonodactylus

Premium Member
Several Cloridopsis dubia have appeared in LFS this fall. This as a squillid spearer that lives on mudflats from South Carolina to Brazil. A similar species is found on the Pacific Coast of Central and South America. Maximum size is 155 mm. Typically squilloids are not very colorful, but C. dubia is an exception. One other interesting note is that several museum tags on this species say that it is poisonous. I have no idea why they included this comment or whether it is true.

Roy

5463CloridopsisdubiaOct06asmall.jpg
 
most interesting! i have this species, can you comment on how it is best to keep this species? i would like to know how best to care for it. thanks,
luscien
 
I have never kept it, but from my experience with other species of squilloid from the same habitat, I would aim for temperature in the low 70's, provide a mud substrate that it can dig in - or a long pvc burrow. Sand is not a good substrate. They cannot form a burrow in it and the grains are abbrasive. Small shrimp, crabs, pile worms, thin shelled bivalves probably make up the bulk of its diet. It will be nocturnal, so don't expect a lot of activity during the day.

Roy
 
Roy,

Where do you get your mud? If sand grains are too abrasive I'm thinking maybe potting soil/sand mixture won't be appropriate. I might need to collect my own mud from some local salt marshes or something. Then I worry about the possibility of dangerous hitchhiking organisms.

Any insight on this?
 
Gonodactylus, dude you know a lot of @&^%(!!
MAJOR homage to you ......... you must post your exp. of cephlapods here as well( my personal favorite) keep up the great work!!
 
thanks dr. roy. i live in SE north carolina. do you have any tips on catching manitids? its rumored that there are some in an area of rock rubble on a channel between the main land and a barrier island. water temp is considered temperate but i think n. wennerae come up this far. any suggestions on what the species may be or how to catch one? thanks.
 
There are certainly Squilla empusa and Cloridopsis dubia in the mud flats and a few small lysiosquillids in the sand. N. wennerae will be in cavities in rubble, probably from 10 to 60 feet plus.

Squillids are easy. When you find a burrow, it will almost always be a u with the entrances a couple of feet apart. Just push your finger in one end and force your hand through the burrow. I don't use a glove so I can feel the burrow and follow it. They rarely strike and if they do, it is with a closed dactyl. Yabbi pumps work well for small Nannosquilla. For the N. wenneriae, look for perfectly round entrances about 1 cm in diameter. I usually carry a piece of coat hanger and stick the wire into any likely looking hole. If I feel a strike, I know I've got a stomatopod. If the rock is portable, I bag it and take it to the surface. If not, it is hammer and chiesel time.

Roy
 
any info / pics for the Cloridopsis dubia , its not on the list. unless i over looked it twice... (completely possible...)

travis, if you catch an extra n. wenn , or dubia drop me a line pls.
 
I'm working on an update to Roy's list and C. dubia will be on it along with a half dozen other species. Should be up in a couple of weeks.

Roy
 
that part, about missing it twice....

i didnt really see that the name of the tread was 'Cloridopsis dubia'

i tried and failed to delete my post....
 
thanks dr. roy. sounds fun sticking my hand through a hole hoping i dont get hit ;) anyway, i am not sure if the mantids are in the sand or the rocks but i am guessing the rocks since there are all sorts of things in there. the water is really shallow, about 1-4ft so collecting shouldnt be too difficult. i wont be collecting now, but it will be nice too know when i am looking for another mantis(currently have G. graphurus).
 
There is a difference between being poisonous or venomous...

Venomous requires envenomation... which involves the animal doing something (like bite or stab) to inject venom into another organism. Venom is used by animals to kill prey or for defense.

Poisonous means something like when touched or eaten... for example: eating a puffer fish because one of its internal organs are poisonous not because it bites and envenomates or . Poison is also used as defense in the way that many animals are poisonous if eaten and are very colorful so as to deter predators.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8516969#post8516969 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by danskim
There is a difference between being poisonous or venomous...

Venomous requires envenomation... which involves the animal doing something (like bite or stab) to inject venom into another organism. Venom is used by animals to kill prey or for defense.

Poisonous means something like when touched or eaten... for example: eating a puffer fish because one of its internal organs are poisonous not because it bites and envenomates or . Poison is also used as defense in the way that many animals are poisonous if eaten and are very colorful so as to deter predators.
Click to expand...

I think that luscien understands the difference, as did I when I asked the question. However, I asked for the elaboration because I'd hate to find out the hard way... especially considering that it's a word that's often times misused.
 
I didn't elaborate on the comments in Ray Manning's book "Stomatopods of the Western Atlantic" because that is all we know. Some of the early species descriptions include a comment that they are poisonous. To quote from Manning:

"One of the labels accompanying a female from Guayaquil notes that the species is "regarded as poisonous and much dreaded." Miers (in Whymper, 1891, p. 124) noted that "...the natives have tried to eat it, but found it poisonous". Also, the lot from the Dominican Republic in the U.S. National Museum has a label stating "sea scorpion--said to be venomous and feared accordingly." These are the only records that I have found of poisonous stomatopods."

That's it. Interesting that of all the records Manning must have looked at over his career, these are the only ones that report poisonous stomatopods and they are all about one species.

Roy
 
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