''Litopenaeus setiferus'' (also accepted: ''Penaeus setiferus'', and known by various common names including Atlantic white shrimp, '' white shrimp'', ''gray shrimp'', ''lake shrimp'', ''green shrimp'', ''green-tailed shrimp'', ''blue-tailed shrimp'', ''rainbow shrimp'', ''Daytona shrimp'', ''Mayport Shrimp'', ''common shrimp'', ''southern shrimp'', and, in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, ') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

prawn Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton and ten legs (which is a member of the order decapoda), some of which can be eaten. The term "prawn"Mortenson, Philip B (2010''This is not a weasel: a close look at nature' ...

found along the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

coast of North America and in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

. It was the subject of the earliest shrimp fishery in the United States.

Distribution

The

range Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...

of ''L. setiferus'' extends from

Fire Island Fire Island is the large center island of the outer barrier islands parallel to the South Shore of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York. Occasionally, the name is used to refer collectively to not only the central island, but also Lo ...

, New York to Ciudad Campeche,

. It requires warm water, and is unable to survive below , with appreciable growth only occurring at temperatures over .

Description

''Litopenaeus setiferus'' may reach a total length (excluding antennae) of , with females being larger than males. The antennae may be up to three times the length of the body, which is bluish white with a tinge of pink on the sides, and black spots. The pleopods are often redder, and the

uropod Uropods are posterior appendages found on a wide variety of crustaceans. They typically have functions in locomotion. Definition Uropods are often defined as the appendages of the last body segment of a crustacean. An alternative definition sugge ...

s and

telson The telson () is the posterior-most division of the body of an arthropod. Depending on the definition, the telson is either considered to be the final segment of the arthropod body, or an additional division that is not a true segment on accou ...

are green. The

rostrum Rostrum may refer to: * Any kind of a platform for a speaker: **dais **pulpit * Rostrum (anatomy), a beak, or anatomical structure resembling a beak, as in the mouthparts of many sucking insects * Rostrum (ship), a form of bow on naval ships * Ros ...

is long and thin, with 5–11 teeth on the upper edge and 2 on the lower edge, and continues along the carapace as a dorsal carina (ridge). Deep grooves alongside the carine separate the related species '' Farfantepenaeus aztecus'' ("brown shrimp") and '' Farfantepenaeus duorarum'' ("pink shrimp") from ''L. setiferus''.

Ecology

''Litopenaeus setiferus'' lives in

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environmen ...

and from the

littoral zone The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal a ...

to water with a depth of in the Atlantic, or up to in the Gulf of Mexico. ''Litopenaeus setiferus'' is an omnivore; in

Lake Pontchartrain Lake Pontchartrain ( ) is an estuary located in southeastern Louisiana in the United States. It covers an area of with an average depth of . Some shipping channels are kept deeper through dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about from wes ...

, it feeds chiefly on the

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the or ...

Vallisneria americana ''Vallisneria americana'', commonly called wild celery, water-celery, tape grass, or eelgrass, is a plant in the family Hydrocharitaceae, the "tape-grasses". ''V. americana'' is a fresh water species that can tolerate salt, living in salinitie ...

'' and detritus. Many aquatic animals feed on ''L. setiferus'', including fish such as

red drum The red drum (''Sciaenops ocellatus''), also known as redfish, channel bass, puppy drum, spottail bass, or simply red, is a game fish found in the Atlantic Ocean from Massachusetts to Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to northern Mexi ...

(''Sciaenops ocellatus'') and

turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked t ...

s such as the

loggerhead sea turtle The loggerhead sea turtle (''Caretta caretta'') is a species of oceanic turtle distributed throughout the world. It is a marine reptile, belonging to the family Cheloniidae. The average loggerhead measures around in carapace length when fully ...

(''Caretta caretta'').

Life cycle

Spawning Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, and the act of both sexes is called spawning. Most aquatic animals, except for aquat ...

in ''L. setiferus'' occurs while the water is warm, between the increase in water temperatures in the spring and the sudden decline in temperature in the fall. It generally occurs within of the

shoreline A shore or a shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. In physical oceanography, a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past a ...

, in water less than deep in the Atlantic, or deep in the Gulf of Mexico. Males attach a

spermatophore A spermatophore or sperm ampulla is a capsule or mass containing spermatozoa created by males of various animal species, especially salamanders and arthropods, and transferred in entirety to the female's ovipore during reproduction. Spermatophores ...

to the females, which is then used to fertilize the eggs as they are released. Each female releases 500,000–1,000,000 purplish eggs, each across, which sink to the bottom of the water column. After 10–12 hours, the eggs hatch into nauplius larvae, which are long,

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a crucia ...

ic and unable to feed. They

molt In biology, moulting (British English), or molting (American English), also known as sloughing, shedding, or in many invertebrates, ecdysis, is the manner in which an animal routinely casts off a part of its body (often, but not always, an outer ...

five times to reach the protozoa stage, long. These grow to long over two molts, before passing through three molts as a mysis larva. About 15–20 days after hatching, the animals reaches the postlarva stage; in the second postlarval stage, at a length of , they begin to enter

and drop down to the substrate. Spring rains flush the shrimp out into the ocean. In the Eastern United States, shrimp then migrate south towards warmer waters.

Fishery

Subsistence fishing for prawns was carried out by Native Americans along the Atlantic coast. This knowledge was passed on to European settlers, and ''Litopenaeus setiferus'' became the subject of the earliest shrimp fishery in the United States, with commercial fishery for ''L. setiferus'' starting as early as 1709. The harvesting for ''L. setiferus'' began in the 1950s and since that time is collected monthly throughout Gulf of Mexico.

Notes

Other references

White shrimp
''NOAA FishWatch''. Retrieved 4 November 2012. {{Taxonbar, from=Q5221424 Penaeidae Edible crustaceans Commercial crustaceans Crustaceans of the Atlantic Ocean Crustaceans described in 1767 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus