Mysis litoralis is a species of typical crustaceans in the family Mysidae. They are omnivores. Individuals can grow to 29 mm. They rely on drag powered swimming to move around.
Definition: Drag swimmers use a cyclic motion where they push water back in a power stroke, and return their limb forward in the return or recovery stroke. When they push water directly backwards, this moves their body forward, but as they return their limbs to the starting position, they push water forward, which will thus pull them back to some degree, and so opposes the direction that the body is heading. This opposing force is called drag. The return-stroke drag causes drag swimmers to employ different strategies than lift swimmers. Reducing drag on the return stroke is essential for optimizing efficiency.
Definition: overall repetitive or reflective pattern in the body of one individual of this taxon. eg: bilateral symmetry, rotational symmetry, radial symmetry
Definition: The marine benthic biome (benthic meaning 'bottom') encompasses the seafloor and includes such areas as shores, littoral or intertidal areas, marine coral reefs, and the deep seabed.
Definition: "Caridoid escape reaction": innate escape mechanism in marine and freshwater crustaceans; rapid abdominal flexions that produce powerful swimming strokes, thrusting the crustacean backwards through the water and away from danger.
Definition: Component found in mineralized skeletal tissue, (a specialized form of biogenic tissue in which the extracellular matrix is mineralized, and which functions in mechanical and structural support.)
Definition: Hard framework, internal or external, which supports and protects softer parts of plant, animal or unicellular organism, and to which muscles usually attach in animals, includes skeletons (derived from Lawrence, 2005).
Definition: A group of species that exploit the same food resources, and/or use the same feeding or foraging methods. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guild_(ecology)
Definition: position of an organism in a food web. May be described verbally with descriptors including primary producer, herbivore or carnivore. If described numerically, 1 indicates a primary producer, 2 a herbivore, and so on up the food web.
Definition: superposition compound eyes where each ommatidium is equipped with a lens cylinder arrangement, producing the equivalent of a pair of lenses, with the first lens producing a small image halfway down the structure and the second lens turning the image back into a parallel beam. In the process the ray direction is reversed. Thus, the emerging beam is on the same side of the axis as the entering beam—the condition for obtaining a superposition image from the whole array.
