[1] Bathyporeia elegans is a translucent, laterally-flattened sand-digger shrimp up to 6 millimetres (0.24 in) long.

In males, the second pair of antennae have filiform flagella which extend the whole length of the body.

Its range extends from northern Norway along the European coast as far south as North Africa, Madeira and the Canary Islands.

[3][4] Animals with which this sand shrimp is often associated in the North Sea include the bivalve mollusc Abra prismatica and various polychaete worms.

The brittlestar Amphiura filiformis and the cumacean crustacean Eudorellopsis deformis may also be present in the habitat.