For Phronima sedentaria, a salp can provide more than a meal. This small crustacean captures this gelatinous animal and removes the internal tissues. It then keeps the structure hollowed out and transports it as a shelter into the waters where refuges are scarce.
The envelope is not only occupied: Phronima reshapes it and secretes substances that strengthen it. The females place their young there, which feed on the tissues of the salp. The same object thus combines the functions of housing and food resource.
The crustacean also has a singular visual system, with a small pair of side eyes and a large pair facing upwards. These eyes help him to observe his environment from inside his shelter. The mobile home therefore does not come out of a construction in reported materials: it comes from another organism, transformed after its capture.
What we know
Salp captured and hollowed out; not a benevolent cohabitation with an intact host.
To go to the source
References consulted on 3 October 2026. Linked pages may be in another language.
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