Painted Tunicate Shrimp

Odontonia katoi

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Family: Palaemonidae
Genus: Odontonia
Species: Odontonia katoi

The painted tunicate shrimp (Odontonia katoi) is a tiny, colourfully patterned shrimp that lives inside solitary sea squirts. Its body is decorated with painted-looking spots and patches.

It is usually under 1 cm long and lives in pairs inside the body cavity of its ascidian host, feeding on particles drawn in by the host's filtering. It was first described from Japan in 1940.

In the Philippines it is found inside sea squirts on reefs and slopes, and is only seen by divers who look closely into the host's siphons.