Relevant Synonyms - Misidentification Penaeus monodon Fabricius, 1798 (cf. Gruvel, 1928)  photo : Bella Galil

SHORT DESCRIPTION Carapace smooth. Rostrum with 5-8 teeth on upper margin, 2-4 teeth on lower margin. Adrostral crest, groove, reaching beyond epigastric tooth; postrostral crest medially grooved, nearly reaching posterior margin of carapace. Antennal and hepatic spines pronounced, orbital and pterygostomian spines absent. Antennal crest prominent. Sixth abdominal somite bearing three scars. Telson unarmed. Basial spine on first and second walking legs. Petasma symmetrical. Thelycum closed, with convex, tumid lateral plates; anterior process with raised margins, posterior process partly inserted between lateral plates. color : body pale brown; carapace, abdomen with pale transversal bands. Antennae striped white and brown. Walking legs and pleopods reddish. Uropods proximally yellowish, distally bluish, setal fringe reddish. common size : TL males 19 cm, females 23 cm. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS Rostrum with 2-4 teeth on lower margin, telson unarmed. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY Nocturnal. Euryhaline, life span 25-26 months, reproductive activity in April and October-November. habitat : sandy or muddy-sand bottoms, 1-130 m.

1st MEDITERRANEAN RECORD Syria, 1928. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide : Indo-West Pacific, Red Sea to Fiji. Mediterranean : recorded first as Penaeus monodon in Syria (Gruvel, 1928). Successively recorded in Egypt (Monod, 1930); Turkey (Gruvel, 1930); Israel (Gottlieb, 1953); Lebanon (Shiber, 1976). ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Abundant along the Levant coast since the 1970s. speculated reasons for success : - MODE OF INTRODUCTION Via the Suez Canal (Gruvel, 1936). IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS Commercially important in Egypt, Israel and Turkey.

KEY REFERENCES Gruvel A., 1928. Répartition géographique de quelques crustacés comestibles sur les côtes d'Egypte et de Syrie. Comptes rendus de la société de biogéographie, 5: 45-46. 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. 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: November 2002 ©ciesm 2002