Relevant Synonyms Penaeopsis monoceros Balss, 1927 Misidentification -  photo : Bella Galil

SHORT DESCRIPTION Body pubescent. Rostrum with 9-12 teeth on upper margin. Post-rostral crest rounded, reaching posterior margin of carapace; crest bordered by shallow grooves. Telson medially grooved, bordered distally by movable spinules. Basial spine on three anterior walking legs, small ischial spine on first walking leg. Merus of fifth walking leg, in males, bearing proximally a notch followed by curved, prominent spine and row of tubercles. Petasma symmetrical, semiclosed, depressed. Thelycum closed, with anterior plate elongate, deeply grooved, lateral plates with prominently raised lateral margins. color : body pale grey with dark brown pin-point chromatophores. Margins of rostrum, rostral crests, antennal scales, lateral margins of carapace, posterior margins of abdominal segments, setae on swimmeret gold. Dorsal crests of last three abdominal segments reddish-brown. Antennal flagella, lateral margins of uropods orange-red. common size : TL 15 cm in males, 20 cm females. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS Merus of fifth walking leg, in males, bearing proximally a notch followed by curved, prominent spine and row of tubercles. Walking legs 1-3 with basial spine. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY Euryhaline. Juveniles are found in estuaries, lagoons or coastal areas, the adults further offshore. Omnivore. habitat : sandy or sandy-mud bottoms.

1st MEDITERRANEAN RECORD Egypt, 1927 [1924]. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide : Indo-West Pacific, Red Sea to Malaysia. Mediterranean : recorded first as Penaeopsis monoceros in Egypt (Balss, 1927 [1924]). Successively recorded in Israel (Gottlieb, 1953); southern Turkey (Holthuis, 1961); Cyprus (Demetropoulos and Neocleous, 1969); Lebanon (Shiber, 1976); Syria (Holthuis, 1980); southern Tunisia (Missaoui and Zaouali, 1995). ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Abundant along the Levant coast since the 1970s. speculated reasons for success : - MODE OF INTRODUCTION Via the Suez Canal (Balss, 1927). IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS Commercially important in Egypt, Israel, Turkey and Tunisia (pers. comm. S. Mahjoub).

KEY REFERENCES Balss H., 1927. Bericht über die Crustacea Decapoda (Natantia und Anomura). Zoological Results of the Cambridge Expedition to the Suez Canal 1924, XIV. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 22: 221-227. Holthuis L.B., 1987a. Crevettes. In: Fischer W., L. Bauchot and M. Schneider (eds.), 1987. Fiches FAO d'identification des espèces pour les besoins de la pêche. Méditerranée et mer Noire. Zone de pêche 37. Vol. 1. Végétaux et Invertébrés, Rome, pp. 189-292. Miquel J.C., 1982. Le genre Metapenaeus (Crustacea, Penaeidae): taxonomie, biologie et pêches mondiales. Zoologische Verhandlingen, Leiden, 195: 1-137.   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: September 2003 ©ciesm 2002