Relevant Synonyms Squilla masawensis Por, 1971 (erroneous spelling) Oratosquilla massavensis Manning, 1977 Misidentification Squilla africana Calman, 1917 (cf. Steuer, 1936)  photo : Bella Galil

SHORT DESCRIPTION Dorsal surface of carapace smooth, polished. Rostral plate subtriangular, unarmed anteriorly, lacking median crest. Eyes large, T-shaped, cornea bilobed. Mandibular palp and four epipods present. Dactyl of raptorial claw sinuous externally, with six teeth. Lateral processes of fifth thoracic somite bilobed. Abdomen with eight crests on anterior five somites, six crests on sixth somite. Telson with two rows of tubercles flanking median crest, outer margin with two submedian, two intermediate and two lateral teeth, and one pair of prelateral lobes, space between teeth denticulate. Basal prolongation of uropod produced into two spines, inner margin crenulate. color : body light greyish-brown; rostral plate margins, abdominal crests and margins reddish; tubercles on telson reddish with light tips, uropod dark blue, basal prolongation of uropod bright orange. Raptorial claw whitish, merus, propodus yellow. common size : TL 20 cm. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS E. massavensis differs from Squilla mantis in lacking median crest on rostral plate and having a bilobed lateral process on fifth thoracic somite. Fresh specimens are easily distinguished as they lack the paired dark spots dorsally on the telson. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY Poorly known. habitat : sublittoral, 5-74 m, fine sand with little mud.

1st MEDITERRANEAN RECORD Egypt, 1936 [1933]. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide : Red Sea, Persian Gulf origin. Mediterranean : recorded first from Egypt as Squilla africana (Steuer, 1936 [1933]). Successively recorded in Palestine (Steuer, 1938); southern Turkey (Holthuis, 1961); Lebanon (Holthuis, 1961); Cyprus (Ingle, 1963); Greece, Crete (Dounas and Steudel, 1994); Rhodes Isl. (Galil and Kevrekidis, 2002). Two specimens were collected off Çakilköy, Sea of Marmara, Turkey, in February 2002 (Katagan et al., 2004). Libya, Tubruk (Shakman and Kinzelbach, 2007); Syria, Lattakia (Saker, 2002). ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Abundant in the eastern Levant and southeastern Turkey since the 1960's. speculated reasons for success : - MODE OF INTRODUCTION Via the Suez Canal (Gruvel, 1936; Steuer, 1936). IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS None now, potentially of commercial interest.

KEY REFERENCES Froglia C. and Manning R. B., 1989. Checklist and key to adult Mediterranean stomatopod Crustacea, pp. 265-273. In: E.A. Ferrero (ed.) Biology of Stomatopods, U.Z.I. selected Symposia and Monographs, Modena. Ingle R.W., 1963. Crustacea Stomatopoda from the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Bulletin Sea Fisheries Research Station, Haifa, 33: 1-69. Katagan T., Kocatas A., Zengin M. and Suat Ates A., 2004. An Indo-Pacific Stomatopod from the Sea of Marmara: Erugosquilla massavensis (Kossmann, 1880). Crustaceana, 77(3): 381-383. Lewinsohn C. and Manning R.B., 1980. Stomatopod Crustacea from the Eastern Mediterranean. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 305: 1-22.   Manning R.B., 1995. Stomatopod Crustacea of Vietnam: the legacy of Raoul Serène. Crustacean Research, Special n°4, 339 pp. Steuer A., 1936. Cumacea und Stomatopoda von Alexandrien in Ägypten. Notizen des Deutsch-Italienischen Institutes für Meeresbiologie in Rovigno d'Istria, 21: 1-19. FEEDBACK / COMMENTS TO AUTHORS

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