Squilla mantis

Taxobox | name = "Squilla mantis"

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image_width = 240px
image_caption = Front half of "S. mantis", showing the (pale-coloured) spearing raptorial claws
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
subphylum = Crustacea
classis = Malacostraca
ordo = Stomatopoda
familia = Squillidae
genus = "Squilla"
species = "S. mantis"
binomial = "Squilla mantis"
binomial_authority = (Linnaeus, 1758)

"Squilla mantis" is a species of mantis shrimp chiefly found and fished in the Mediterranean Sea. It grows up to 200 mm (8 in) long , and is of the "spearer" type [cite web |url=http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/crustacea/malacostraca/eumalacostraca/royslist/notes.html |title=External anatomy and explanatory notes |work=Roy's List of Stomatopods for the Aquarium |author=Roy Caldwell |accessdate=2007-08-26 |publisher=University of California Museum of Paleontology] . It is generally dull brown in colouration, but has two brown eye spots, circled in white at the base of the telson [cite book |url=ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/008/t0438e/T0438E45.pdf |chapter=Stomatopods |title=Field Guide to the Commercial Marine Resources of the Gulf of Guinea |publisher=FAO Regional Office for Africa |author=Wolfgang Schneider |pages=191 |year=1990 |id=ISBN 92-5-103048-0] . Other species — including "smashers" — are also sold in the aquarium trade as "Squilla mantis" [cite web |url=http://www.togar.de/English/aqua/mantis_shrimp.htm |title=Mantis shrimp |publisher=togar.de |accessdate=2007-08-26] .

Distribution and ecology

"S. mantis" digs burrows in muddy and sandy bottoms near the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and adjacent warm parts of the eastern Atlantic Ocean cite web |url=http://www.imv.uit.no/crustikon/Decapoda/Decapoda2/Species_index/Squilla_mantis.htm |title="Squilla mantis" |work=Crustikon – Crustacean photographic website |publisher=Tromsø Museum – University of Tromsø |author=Cédric d'Udekem d'Acoz |year=2003] . It remains in its burrow during the day and comes out at night to hunt, and in the winter to mate .

It is found around the entire coast of the Mediterranean, and in the Atlantic Ocean south from the Gulf of Cádiz to Angola, as well as around the Canary Islands, and Madeira. It has historically been recorded from the Bay of Biscay and the British Isles, but is not known to occur there any more cite journal |quotes=no |url=http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/cr/2004/00000077/00000009/art00004 |title=A review of the fisheries biology of the mantis shrimp, "Squilla mantis" (L., 1758) (Stomatopoda, Squillidae) in the Mediterranean |author=F. Maynou, P. Abelló & P. Sartor |journal=Crustaceana |volume=77 |issue=9 |year=2004 |pages=1081–1099 |doi=10.1163/1568540042900295] . It is particularly abundant where there is significant run-off from rivers, and where the substrate is suitable for burrowing. In the Mediterranean, the outflows from the Nile, Po, Ebro and Rhône provide these conditions .

The alpheid shrimp "Athanas amazone" often lives in the burrows of "S. mantis", despite being of a similar size to other shrimp which "S. mantis" feeds on [cite journal |quotes=no |title=Association between "Athanas amazone" (Decapoda: Alpheidae) and "Squilla mantis" (Stomatopoda: Squillidae) |author=C. Froglia, R. James & A. Atkinson |journal=Journal of Crustacean Biology |volume=18 |issue=3 |year=1998 |pages=529–532 |doi=10.2307/1549417] . The relationship between the two species remains unknown, although a second similar case has been reported for the species "Athanas squillophilus" in the burrows of "Oratosquilla oratoria" in Japanese waters [cite journal |quotes=no |title=A new species of the genus "Athanas" (Decapoda, Caridea, Alpheidae) living in the burrows of a mantis shrimp |author=K.-I. Hayashi |journal=Crustaceana |volume=75 |issue=3–4 |year=2002 |pages=395–403| doi=10.1163/156854002760095462] .

Fishery

"S. mantis" is the only native stomatopod to be fished for on a commercial scale in the Mediterranean. Over 7,000 t is caught annually, 85% of which is caught on Italian shores of the Adriatic Sea [cite web |url=http://www.fao.org/figis/servlet/TabLandArea?tb_ds=Production&tb_mode=TABLE&tb_act=SELECT&tb_grp=COUNTRY |title=Global Production Statistics 1950-2005 |publisher=Food and Agriculture Organization |accessdate=2007-08-26] , with further production in the Ionian Sea, off Sardinia, off the coast of Catalonia and off the Balearic Islands . It is mostly taken as by-catch of other fisheries (including for sole), and commercial interest derives from the species' abundance rather than its market value .

References