FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes Western

908 Shrimps and Prawns
Metapenaeopsis palmensis (Haswell, 1879)
Frequent synonyms / misidentifications: Metapenaeopsis barbeensis Hall, 1962 / Metapenaeopsis
novaeguineae (Haswell, 1879); M. stridulans (Alcock, 1905).
FAO names: En - Southern velvet shrimp; Fr - Crevette chamois méridionale; Sp -Camaróngamuzasureño.
thelycal
plate
(after Motoh and Buri, 1984)
Diagnostic characters: Body densely covered with hairs; grooves and
crests on carapace obscure. Rostrum nearly straight or slightly curved
upward, armed with 7 or 8 regularly spaced upper teeth (excluding
epigastric tooth on carapace); rostrum extending just to distal antennular
segment. Pterygostomian spine reduced and small; 8 to 13 (mostly 9 or
10) stridulating organs present on posterolateral carapace. Abdomen
with dorsal crest on third segment narrow and more than 9 times as long as
broad, median groove on crest narrow but deep; sixth segment about 2
times as long as fifth segment. Petasma of males asymmetrical, left
distoventral projection longer, bearing about 10 rather blunt projections
at tip; right distoventral projection usually without spinules at tip.
Thelycum of females with thelycal plate slightly concave, inverted
trapezoidal, 0.6 to 0.7 times as long as broad; intermediate plate concave,
with lateral parts expanded into 2 small flaps, posterior edge very
thick. Telson with 1 pair of fixed and 3 pairs of movable lateral spines. Colour:
body whitish, mottled with irregular red stripes; eyes dark brown; antennal
flagella pale red; legs whitish, with some red spots on the sides of
pleopods; distal half of uropods reddish.
right
distolateral
projection
petasma (ventral view)
(after Crosnier, 1994)
left
distolateral
projection
Size: Maximum body length 12 cm (females) and 8.5mm (males), commonly between 5 and 8 cm.
Habitat, biology, and fisheries: Found on sandy-mud or mud bottoms, from depths of 5 to 100 m, usually
less than 90 m. Taken mainly as bycatch in trawls. Probably the most common species of the genus in the
area, but nowhere very abundant
and only of limited commercial
importance, due to its
small size. Marketed mainly
fresh for local consumption.
Distribution: Indo-West
Pacific from the western coast
of Thailand to Japan and
Australia.
coxal
plate
thelycum
(after Crosnier, 1994)