Relevant Synonyms - Misidentification -  drawing : Tuvia Kurz

SHORT DESCRIPTION Carapace, abdomen smooth, glabrous. Rostrum lanceolate, narrow, distally upturned. Carapace with three longitudinal dorsal ridges in breeding females only. Orbital margin entire, sub-orbital angle distinctly dentate. Fifth abdominal somite entire, without dorsal elevations or posterior tooth, sixth somite antero-dorsal swelling indistinct, ventro-lateral spine curved, distinct. Telson with two pairs of dorsal spines; posterior margin with five pairs of spines. Movable finger of first pereopod with 16-21 spines on opposable margin, that of second pereopod with 17-26 spines. Endopod of first male pleopod inconspicuously flared distolaterally. color : carapace, legs cream-colored. common size : maximum CL male 3 cm, female 3.4 cm. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS Sub-orbital angle dentate; rostrum narrow in lateral view, its upper margin concave; carapace with 3 longitudinal ridges in breeding females only. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY One of the main food items in the diet of goatfishes in the eastern Mediterranean (Golani and Galil, 1991). habitat : sandy, sandy-mud bottoms, 8-140 m.

1st MEDITERRANEAN RECORD Israel, 1958 [1947]. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide : Indo-West Pacific, Red Sea to Japan. Mediterranean : recorded first from Israel (Holthius and Gottlieb, 1958 [1947]). Subsequently from southern Turkey (Kocatas, 1981a); Syria, Lattakia (Saker and Farah, 1994). ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Common along the Israeli coast. speculated reasons for success : - MODE OF INTRODUCTION Presumably via the Suez Canal. IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS None.

KEY REFERENCES 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. Holthuis L.B. and E. Gottlieb, 1958. An annotated list of the decapod Crustacea of the Mediterranean coast of Israel, with an appendix listing the Decapoda of the Eastern Mediterranean. Bulletin of the Research Council of Israel, Section B, Zoology, 7B(1-2): 1-126.   FEEDBACK / COMMENTS TO AUTHORS

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