FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes Western

Penaeidae 925
Penaeus semisulcatus De Haan, 1844 TIP
Frequent synonyms / misidentifications: Penaeus ashiaka Kishinouye, 1900; P. monodon manillensis
Villaluz and Arriola, 1938; P. semisulcatus paucidentatus Parisi, 1919 / None.
FAO names: En - Green tiger prawn; Fr - Crevette tigrée verte; Sp - Camarón tigre verde.
anterior process
posterior
process
distomedian
projection
Diagnostic characters: Carapace with grooves and crests distinct, rostrum
generally armed with 6 to 8 upper teeth (including those on carapace) and 3 lower
teeth; postrostral crest well developed and reaching nearly to posterior margin
of carapace, with a distinct median groove; adrostral crest extending beyond
last postrostral tooth; gastrofrontal crest absent; hepatic crest long and
extending behind antennal crest, straight but distinctly sloping anteroventrally.
Fifth leg with exopod (somewhat hidden beneath carapace). Petasma
of males with distomedian projections short and not overhanging distal margin of
costae. Thelycum of females formed by 2 suboval lateral plates with tumid lips;
anterior process subtriangular and with raised edges, posterior process convex
and partly inserted between lateral plates. Telson without lateral spines. Colour:
body reddish brown to pale brown or dark green, carapace covered with
lateral plates
thelycum
ventral
costa
mud-yellow transverse bands while abdomen including tail fan bears greyish brown and mud-yellow
cross bands; eyes light brown with many black dots; rostral teeth dark brown; antennal flagella
alternated with white and brown bands; both legs and pleopods reddish and covered with some white
markings, with tips of legs whitish, and bases of legs and pleopods also whitish; distal half of uropods
dark reddish brown and with red margins.
Size: Maximum body length 25 cm (females) and 18 cm (males), commonly between 13 and 18 cm.
Habitat, biology, and fisheries: On the continental shelf from the coastline to depths of about 130 m, usually
less than 60 m, over bottoms of sand, mud, or sandy-mud. Seems to prefer high salinity waters, with juveniles
often associated with seagrass beds and sometimes found on the top of coral reef platforms. Reported to form
small shoals and to be predominantly nocturnal, buried in the substrate during the daytime.Mainly taken offshore
by trawls, sometimes also caught by fish corrals in coastal areas. Commonly seen in the markets of Thailand
and Indonesia, and the most dominant prawn species in offshore fisheries in the Philippines. FAO’s Yearbook
of Fishery Statistics records 650 t of this species taken in 1995 from the Western Central Pacific, this figure
comprising exclusively catches from Thailand. Also caught commercially in Australia, with an annual catch of
about 3 300 t (together with
Penaeus esculentus) from the
Northern Prawn Fishery during
the annual period of
1989/1990. Marketed mostly
fresh and frozen, consumed locally
and exported.
Distribution: Widely distributed
in the Indo-West Pacific
from the eastern coast of Africa
to Japan, Australia, and
Fiji; also entered the eastern
Mediterranean through the
Suez Canal.
lateral
lobe
petasma (ventral view)