The first antenna divides into two parts and the second is very long, exceeding the length of the body and being banded in pale and dark brown.

[3][4] This shrimp can be distinguished from the rather similar P. tridens by having a shorter rostrum and longer dactyls (claws) on the third and fourth pereopods (walking limbs).

[3] Off the Labrador coast, a large daily vertical migration was found, with the shrimp being benthic in the daytime and pelagic at night.

[7] In the North Sea, P. montagui is often found living in association with the polychaete worm Sabellaria spinulosa.

About 500 tons a year of P. montagui were caught globally in the period 2005–2007, catches also being recorded from Belgium, Denmark, the Faröe Islands, the Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.