Stereomastis suhmi, the blind lobster, is a species of crustacean resembling a prawn or a squat lobster. It was first described by Charles Spence Bate in 1878.[1] [2]
It was first found off the coast of Tasmania, 95 km northeast of Flinders Island.[3]
The Polychelidae family was the most diverse during the Mesozoic period, and the Stereomastis suhmi has geographical ranges that go from West Indies, the Caribbean Sea, Sargasso Sea, West Africa, Eastern Australia, and Taiwan (Rengaiyan et al., 2020b). These creatures likely live in low-salinity/oxygen-rich waters (Nahuel Emiliano Farías et al. (2015)).
[4] Bezerra, L. E. A., & Ribeiro, F. B. (2015). Primitive decapods from the deep sea: first record of blind lobsters (Crustacea: Decapoda: Polychelidae) in northeastern Brazil. Nauplius, 23(2), 125–131. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-64972015002327
Nahuel Emiliano Farías, Emiliano Hernán Ocampo, & Tomás Atilio Luppi. (2015). On the presence of the deep-sea blind lobsterStereomastis suhmi(Decapoda: Polychelidae) in Southwestern Atlantic waters and its circum-Antarctic distribution. New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 42(2), 119–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/03014223.2015.1013041Rengaiyan, P., Fernandes, S. O., Kurian, P. J., & Ingole, B. (2020b). Molecular identification of deep-sea blind lobster Willemoesia forceps (Crustacea: Decapoda: Polychelidae) from the Central Indian Ridge. Mitochondrial DNA Part B, 5(1), 1013–1014. https://doi.org/10.1080/23802359.2020.1721345