''Aristaeomorpha foliacea'', the giant red shrimp or giant gamba prawn, is a species of deep water

benthopelagic The demersal zone is the part of the sea or ocean (or deep lake) consisting of the part of the water column near to (and significantly affected by) the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone and forms a layer of ...

decapod The Decapoda or decapods, from Ancient Greek δεκάς (''dekás''), meaning "ten", and πούς (''poús''), meaning "foot", is a large order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, and includes crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, and p ...

crustacean. It is found in all the world's oceans in the temperate and tropical zones. It is subject to some commercial fishing activity in the Mediterranean Sea.

Description

''Aristaeomorpha foliacea'' is a large decapod crustacean, a shrimp or prawn which has a firm and, flexible and light red

exoskeleton An exoskeleton () . is a skeleton that is on the exterior of an animal in the form of hardened integument, which both supports the body's shape and protects the internal organs, in contrast to an internal endoskeleton (e.g. human skeleton, that ...

and black eyes. In mature females black colour of the black ovaries darkens the dorsal part of the abdomen. There is a slight keel along the dorsal midlines of the third segment which becomes more pronounced on the next three segments, ending in a sharp posterior point. It has long

pleopods The anatomy of a decapod consists of 20 body segments grouped into two main body parts: the cephalothorax and the pleon (abdomen). Each segment – often called a somite – may possess one pair of appendages, although in various groups these ma ...

, antennal, hepatic and branchiostegal spines on its carapace, a very short upper antennal flagella, strong spines to the rear of the midpoint on the third to sixth abdominal segments, a

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

with four small mobile lateral spines, the females have an open telicum and the species shows secondary sexual dimorphism in body size and the length of the rostrum with the adult females being larger and having a longer rostrum, extending well beyond the antennal scale. In the males the rostrum is short and does not reach the tip of the antenna's peduncle. There are 6-12 upper teeth on the rostrum, including 2 on the carapace. The largest females have a total length of and the largest males grow to . The more common measurements for females are body length and for males .

Distribution

''Aristaeomorpha foliacea'' is found in the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Atlantic, the western Atlantic and the Indian Ocean into the Western Pacific from Japan to Australia and New Zealand as far east as

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

. This distribution reflects the origin of ''A. foliacea'' in the

Tethys Ocean The Tethys Ocean ( ; ), also called the Tethys Sea or the Neo-Tethys, was a prehistoric ocean during much of the Mesozoic Era and early-mid Cenozoic Era. It was the predecessor to the modern Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Eurasia ...

during the

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era is the Era (geology), era of Earth's Geologic time scale, geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Period (geology), Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian r ...

, which covered an area approximately covering the present

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

to the Indian Ocean and included areas which are now in the Mediterranean. Its expansion into adjacent areas of the Pacific is a later increase in distribution. The distribution of this species in the Mediterranean is rather patchy and the largest concentrations are in the central and eastern basins.

Habitat and biology

The giant red shrimp is a deep-water benthopelagic species and has a reported depth distribution of 120–1300 m, generally on muddy bottoms, in the Mediterranean it shows a preference for quite deep waters, mainly 500-800m, but it is more likely than related species to be found in shallower waters. It is known to gather in large aggregations in submarine canyons and trenches along the

continental slope A continental margin is the outer edge of continental crust abutting oceanic crust under coastal waters. It is one of the three major zones of the ocean floor, the other two being deep-ocean basins and mid-ocean ridges. The continental margi ...

. Only a few individuals reproduce in their first year. The development of the

gonads A gonad, sex gland, or reproductive gland is a mixed gland and sex organ that produces the gametes and sex hormones of an organism. Female reproductive cells are egg cells, and male reproductive cells are sperm. The male gonad, the testicle, ...

starts during the winter and the shrimps reach sexual maturity in their second summer. Sexually mature males have an extended reproductive capacity and are able to mate throughout the year, however the females mature seasonally. In the

Strait of Sicily The Strait of Sicily (also known as Sicilian Strait, Sicilian Channel, Channel of Sicily, Sicilian Narrows and Pantelleria Channel; or the ; or , ' or ') is the strait between Sicily and Tunisia. The strait is about wide and divides the Ty ...

the females maturate and spawn from spring until autumn, with a peak in summer-autumn. This species gathers in shoals when mating and spawning. The eggs are released into the sea but the larval and juvenile stages are little known. This species is an opportunistic carnivore and scavenger with a high diversity in consumed prey types, the analysis of stomach content found both strictly benthic and pelagic prey . It is likely that this species undertakes diel migrations which are related to its feeding behaviour, during the day its prey consists of

benthos Benthos (), also known as benthon, is the community of organisms that live on, in, or near the bottom of a sea, river, lake, or stream, also known as the benthic zone.crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

bony fish Osteichthyes ( ; ), also known as osteichthyans or commonly referred to as the bony fish, is a Biodiversity, diverse clade of vertebrate animals that have endoskeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondricht ...

cephalopod A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan Taxonomic rank, class Cephalopoda (Greek language, Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral symm ...

s siphonophores,

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

bivalve Bivalvia () or bivalves, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class (biology), class of aquatic animal, aquatic molluscs (marine and freshwater) that have laterally compressed soft bodies enclosed b ...

polychaete Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine Annelid, annelid worms, common name, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called c ...

s and

foraminiferans Foraminifera ( ; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class of Rhizarian protists characterized by streaming granular ectoplasm for catching food and other uses; and commonly ...

. In the Straits of Sicily the main crustacean prey are '' Plesionika'' and '' Pasiphaea'' spp., especially '' Pasiphaea sivado''. Also in the Straits of Sicily cephalopods are relatively more important in its diet when compared to giant red shrimp from other areas, making ''A. foliacea'' a significant contributor to the juvenile mortality of species such as ''

Heteroteuthis dispar ''Heteroteuthis dispar'', also known as the odd bobtail, is a small deep water squid found in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Taxonomy ''Heteroteuthis dispar'' is a deep sea species of squid and relatively little is known ab ...

'' in the food webs of the central Mediterranean. Giant red shrimp also change their feeding behaviour seasonally, siphonophores of the family Diphyidae are important in the spring while benthic gastropods are an important food source in autumn. There appears to be a correlation between increased feeding in the Spring and increased reproductive activity. In the winter this species seems to eat more food but the food is of lower quality.

Fisheries

''Aristaeomorpha foliacea'' is an important target species for bottom otter trawlers operating on the continental slope in the Strait of Sicily where is pursued by boats from Tunisia, Malta and

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

. it is also a quarry species off Venezuela and Madagascar. ''A. foliacea'' is marketed fresh or frozen.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3622652 Crustaceans described in 1827 Dendrobranchiata Edible crustaceans Commercial crustaceans Crustaceans of Brazil Taxa named by Antoine Risso