Echinosquilla guerinii

Scientific name : Echinosquilla guerinii

Small smasher, marbled orange colour with 2 trasverse white bands. Small eyes, with alternating light and dark bands. The last abdominal segment (telson) is rounded and spiny. 7 cm. Found in the back reef and reef front, in abandoned worm tubes, often inside large massive hard coral colonies. Seldom seen outside its shelter. Sometimes it turns itself and closes the hole with the spiny telson, mimicking a sea urchin like Echinometra mathaei. It feeds on other crustaceans, it has been observed preying on small Odontactylus sp. Cannot be confused for the habitat, and especially when the spiny telson can be seen.

Associated organisms
With large massive hard corals, in the abandoned worm (like Spirobranchus) tubes.