Home Introduction What is an ostracod? World species list Southern Ocean list About the authors Bibliography Acknowledgements Links Last updated 14 March 2008 Southern Ocean list > Paraconchoecia spinifera > Notes Paraconchoecia spinifera Drawings   Maps Download species PDF Paraconchoecia spinifera Claus 1891 Records: 195 This species is readily recognizable from its sharp edged shoulder vaults, a characteristic that in the Southern Ocean it shares only with Boroecia antipoda. The maps show that it is a widespread species that predominantly occurs at low latitudes. By day it is a shallow mesopelagic species and at night undertakes diel migrations usually, but not always, stopping below the season thermocline. Males have been described as giving striking displays of bioluminescence, the light being emitted from glands all along the ventral margins of the carapace and along the sharp shoulder vaults. The function of such showy displays would seem to be associated with a mating display, and such displays have been reported in a wide variety of reef-dwelling myodocopids in the Caribbean. However, like all halocyprids, P. spiniferahas no obvious visual receptors! In living and freshly preserved specimens the glands along the carapace margins appear darker that the surrounding tissues in transmitted light, and so all similar glands in other species may have a similar function. Moreover structural elaborations of the carapace, such as the sharp edged shoulder vaults and the development of spines and the elongation of the rostrum are often associated with bioluminescent emissions usually retained within glands, rather than discharged into the water. NE Atlantic n Mean mm s.d. Range mm Female 100 2.048 0.075 1.86-2.32 Male 66 1.799 0.060 1.66-1.96 A-1 190 1.483 0.055 1.38-1.64 A-2 394 1.070 0.043 0.92-1.16 A-3 377 0.770 0.033 0.66-0.88