Relevant Synonyms - Misidentification -  photo : Bella Galil

SHORT DESCRIPTION Carapace pubescent. Rostrum with seven teeth on upper margin, epigastric tooth widely separated from rostral teeth. Cervical, hepatic, orbito-antennal grooves ill defined. Orbital spine small; antennal, pterygostomian, hepatic spines well developed. Stridulating ridge, a curved file of 13-21 scars, laterally near posterior margin of carapace. Abdomen dorsally carinate on 2nd-6th segments. Telson armed with pair of fixed subapical spines and three pairs of movable spines. Basial spines on first, second walking legs, ischial spine on first walking legs only. Petasma asymmetrical. Thelycum closed. color : body cream, irregularly mottled with orange-red. Uropods distally orange-red. common size : TL 8.5 cm. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS Metapenaeopsis aegyptia differs from all other Mediterranean penaeids in having a stridulating ridge laterally near posterior margin of carapace. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY Poorly known. habitat : sandy-mud bottoms, 13-60 m.

1st MEDITERRANEAN RECORD Israel, 1990 [1987]. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide : Indo-Pacific, Red Sea to New Caledonia. Mediterranean : recorded first in Israel (Galil and Golani, 1990 [1987]). Subsequently recorded from Greece, Rhodes Isl. (Kevrekidis et al., 1998). Collected between 1996 and 2003, at depths between 3 and 26 m, off Kas Peninsula, off the southwestern coast of Turkey (Yokes and Galil, 2004). Cyprus, Larnaka (Kirimitzoglou et al., 2006 [2004]). 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 Crosnier A., 1994. Crustacea Decapoda: Les Metapenaeopsis indo-ouest-pacifiques avec un appareil stridulant (Penaeidae). In: A. Crosnier (ed.), Résultats des Campagnes MUSORSTOM, Volume 12. Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris (A), 161: 255-337. Fishelson L., 2000. Marine animal assemblages along the littoral of the Israeli Mediterranean seashore: the Red-Mediterranean Seas communities of species. Italian Journal of Zoology, 67: 393-415. Galil B.S., 2000a. A sea under siege - alien species in the Mediterranean. Biological Invasions, 2: 177-186. Galil B.S. and D. Golani, 1990. Two new migrant decapods from the eastern Mediterranean. Crustaceana, 58(3): 229-236.   Perez-Farfante I. and B. Kensley, 1997. Penaeoid and sergestoid shrimps and prawns of the world. Keys and diagnoses for the families and genera. Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, 175: 1-233. FEEDBACK / COMMENTS TO AUTHORS

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