• Kingdom: Animalia
  • Phylum: Arthropoda
  • Subphylum: Crustacea
  • Class: Malacostraca
  • Subclass: Eumalacostraca
  • Superorder: Eucarida
  • Order: Euphausiacea
  • Family: Euphausiidae
  • Scientific name: Meganyctiphanes norvegica
  • Norwegian: norsk storkrill

Characteristics:

The nordic krill, also called horned krill, may reach a length of 45 mm. The medium sized eye (1/5 of carapace length) is round. There is no rostral process in front of the carapace, but two distinct spines just behind the each eye. There are no specific spines or other characteristic features on the tail. There are usually a red pigmented spot on each segment of the tale, near the base of each leg.

Habitat:

The nordic krill usually lives on depths between 100 and 400 meters during daytime, although it has been caught as deep as 1500 meters. It migrates to the surface at night-time. During the dark winter nights, it can be observed in huge numbers on shallow water by scuba divers.

Distribution:

It is widespread in the North Atlantic Ocean as well as in the Mediterranean.