Relevant Synonyms Palaemonella vestigialis Kemp, 1922 Misidentification -  drawing : Tuvia Kurz

SHORT DESCRIPTION Body slender, smooth. Rostrum well developed, compressed, dorsally with 6-8 teeth, ventrally with 1-3 teeth. Antennal scale longer than antenullar peduncle. Hepatic, antennal spines present. Supra-orbital spine vestigial. Telson slender, with two pairs of robust dorsal spines, three pairs of terminal spines. Mandible with two jointed palp. First walking leg slender; chela and fingers slender. Second walking legs well developed, subequal, merus with distinct distoventral spine, carpus lacking sub-terminal disto-medial spine. color : transparent, chela of second walking legs yellowish, finger basially and medially ringed with dark brown. common size : CL 0.5 cm, TL 1.1 cm. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS Vestigial supra-orbital tubercle, mandibular palp present. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY Poorly known. habitat : free living, or coral (IWP), or sea-weed associate; from shore pools to muddy bottoms, 0-130 m.

1st MEDITERRANEAN RECORD Israel, 1958 [1948]. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide : Indo-West Pacific, Red Sea to Hawaiian Islands. Mediterranean : recorded first from Israel as Palaemonella vestigialis (Holthuis and Gottlieb, 1958 [1948]) and repeatedly collected since. Recently reported from Fethiye, Turkey (Grippa, pers. comm., 1999). ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Well established off Israel but relatively rare. speculated reasons for success : - MODE OF INTRODUCTION Presumably via the Suez Canal. IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS None.

KEY REFERENCES Bruce A.J., 1970. Observations on the Indo-West-Pacific species of the genus Palaemonella Dana, 1852 (Decapoda, Pontoniinae). Crustaceana, 19(3): 273-287. Bruce A.J., 1978. A report on a collection of pontoniinae shrimps from Madagascar and adjacent seas. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 62: 205-290. 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: November 2002 ©ciesm 2002