Relevant Synonyms - Misidentification -  photos: Shane Ahyong

SHORT DESCRIPTION Eyestalk inflated, cornea bilobed but markedly narrower than stalk; rostrum wider than long; dorsal processes of antennular somite with short, triangular apices; raptorial claw dactylus with 5 teeth; mandible with palp; lateral process of fifth thoracic somite produced to a short slender spine; lateral process of sixth and seventh thoracic somites rounded posterolaterally; abdominal somites 2-5 with unarmed submedian carinae; telson intermediate teeth with crenulate to tuberculate margins; telson ventral surface without carinae or tubercles flanking postanal carina. color : common size : TL up to 75 mm. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS Distinguished from all other Mediterranean stomatopods by the flask-shaped eye in which the cornea is bilobed and narrower than the stalk. In all other Mediterranean stomatopods, the cornea is as wide as or wider than the stalk. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY Predatory, shelters in burrows. habitat : lives in sandy-mud substrates at depths of 31-110 m (Ahyong, 2001). The Mediterranean specimens were collected at 55 m on a meadow of Antedon mediterranea.

1st MEDITERRANEAN RECORD Ashdod, Israel, 2006. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide : from Taiwan and Australia to the western Indian Ocean (Ahyong, 2001), known from the Red Sea, including the Gulf of Suez. Mediterranean : along the central coast of Israel (Ahyong and Galil, 2006). ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Established but rare. speculated reasons for success : unknown. MODE OF INTRODUCTION Through the Suez Canal. IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS None.

KEY REFERENCES Ahyong S.T., 2001. Revision of the Australian Stomatopod Crustacea. Records of the Australian Museum , Suppl. 26: 1-326. Ahyong S.T. and P. Naiyanetr, 2000. Revision of the Clorida latreillei species complex with description of a new species (Squillidae: Stomatopoda). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 48(2): 313-325. Ahyong S.T. and Galil B.S., 2006. First Mediterranean record of the Indo-West Pacific mantis shrimp, Clorida albolitura Ahyong & Naiyanetr, 2000 (Stomatopoda, Squillidae). Aquatic Invasions, 1(3): 191-193.   FEEDBACK / COMMENTS TO AUTHORS

Last update of the species sheet: October 2008 ©ciesm 2002