Relevant Synonyms - Misidentification -  drawing : Tuvia Kurz

SHORT DESCRIPTION Carapace and abdomen smooth, glabrous. Rostrum broadly lanceolate. Carapace with three longitudinal dorsal ridges, in both sexes. Orbital margin entire, sub-orbital angle unarmed. Abdominal terga rounded, fifth somite entire, lacking postero-dorsal tooth, sixth somite with low transverse carinae swelling anteriorly. Telson with one pair of dorso-mesial, one pair of dorso-lateral moveable spines, five pairs of prominent moveable spines on posterior margin. Movable finger of first pereopod with 14-22 spines on opposable margin, that of second pereopod with 17-26 spines. Endopod of first male pleopod obliquely rounded distally, lateral margins slightly concave. color : unrecorded. common size : males CL 2.9 cm, ovigerous females CL 2.4-2.6 cm. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS Sub-orbital angle rounded; rostrum broadly lanceolate in lateral view, its upper margin convex; carapace with three longitudinal ridges, in both sexes. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY Poorly known. habitat : specimens from Egypt were collected at depths of 51-88 meters, on muddy bottoms.

1st MEDITERRANEAN RECORD Egypt, 1936 [1933]. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide : Indo-West Pacific, Red Sea to Samoa. Mediterranean : a single record from Egypt (Balss, 1936 [1933]). ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Known from a single record. speculated reasons for success : - MODE OF INTRODUCTION Presumably via the Suez Canal. IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS None.

KEY REFERENCES Balss H., 1936. Decapoda (with an appendix, Schizopoda, by C. Zimmer). Part VII in The Fishery Grounds near Alexandria. Fisheries Research Directorate Notes and Memoirs (Cairo), 15: 1-67. Chace F. A., 1976. Shrimps of the Pasiphaeid Genus Leptochela with descriptions of three new species (Crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 222: 1-51.   FEEDBACK / COMMENTS TO AUTHORS

Last update of the species sheet: November 2002 ©ciesm 2002