Relevant Synonyms Penaeopsis stebbingi Nobili, 1904 Misidentification -  drawing : Tuvia Kurz

SHORT DESCRIPTION Carapace nearly smooth, hairless. Rostrum horizontal, bearing 7-10 teeth on upper margin. Postrostral crest rounded, half as long as carapace. Antennal and hepatic spines present. Branchiocardiac groove indistinct. Cervical groove marked. Telson medially grooved, margins distally spinulose. Walking legs 1-3 with basial spine. Merus of fifth walking leg, in males, proximally notched on inner margin. Petasma with laterally curved processes and an apical styliform process. Thelycum with posterior ridge between triangulate lateral plates. color : carapace, abdomen, legs, pleopods cream-colored with rust-colored chromatophores. Antennae, distal part of uropods reddish. common size : TL males 11 cm, females 14 cm. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS First walking leg lacking ischial spine. Merus of fifth walking leg, in males, proximally notched on inner margin. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY Euryhaline. Juveniles occur in shallow coastal waters; adults, further offshore. Life span 13-16 months. Reproduction April-September. habitat : sandy or muddy sandy bottom, 1-90 m.

1st MEDITERRANEAN RECORD Egypt, 1927 [1924]. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide : Indian Ocean, Red Sea to India. Mediterranean : recorded first in Egypt (Balss, 1927 [1924]). Successively recorded in Israel (Lewinsohn and Holthuis, 1964); Lebanon (Shiber, 1976); southern Turkey (Kocatas, 1981a); Syria (Saker, 2002). ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Abundant along the Levant coast since the 1970s. speculated reasons for success : - MODE OF INTRODUCTION Via the Suez Canal (Krukenberg, 1888). IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS Commercially important in Egypt, Israel and Turkey.

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: October 2008 ©ciesm 2002