''Erythrosquilla'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

mantis shrimp Mantis shrimp, or stomatopods, are carnivorous marine crustaceans of the order Stomatopoda (). Stomatopods branched off from other members of the class Malacostraca around 340 million years ago. Mantis shrimp typically grow to around in length ...

, placed in its own

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

(Erythrosquillidae) and

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

(Erythrosquilloidea) comprising two species: *''Erythrosquilla hamano'' Ahyong, 2001 *''Erythrosquilla megalops'' Manning & Bruce, 1984 The family is distinguished from other stomatopod families by the presence of a ridge on the mid-line of the

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 ...

''Erythrosquilla megalops''

''E. megalops'' is only known from the waters off

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constitut ...

, in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

, which gives rise to the generic name (' being an old name for the Indian Ocean). The

raptorial The term ''raptorial'' implies much the same as ''predatory'' but most often refers to modifications of an arthropod's foreleg that make it function for the grasping of prey while it is consumed, where the gripping surfaces are formed from the o ...

claws each have five teeth, rather than the 8–9 seen in ''E. hamano''.

''Erythrosquilla hamano''

''E. hamano'' is known from Japanese waters in the East China Sea and around

Rottnest Island Rottnest Island ( nys, Wadjemup), often colloquially referred to as "Rotto", is a island off the coast of Western Australia, located west of Fremantle. A sandy, low-lying island formed on a base of aeolianite limestone, Rottnest is an A-class ...

, Australia. This apparently

disjunct distribution In biology, a taxon with a disjunct distribution is one that has two or more groups that are related but considerably separated from each other geographically. The causes are varied and might demonstrate either the expansion or contraction of a s ...

is also known in the parasquillid mantis shrimp ''

Pseudosquillopsis dofleini ''Pseudosquillopsis'' is a genus of mantis shrimp in the family Parasquillidae Parasquillidae is a family of mantis shrimp containing the three genera '' Faughnia'', '' Parasquilla'' and ''Pseudosquillopsis''. It was previously included in t ...

''. Among the differences between it and ''E. megalops'', the most obvious is that it has more teeth on the raptorial

claw A claw is a curved, pointed appendage found at the end of a toe or finger in most amniotes (mammals, reptiles, birds). Some invertebrates such as beetles and spiders have somewhat similar fine, hooked structures at the end of the leg or tars ...

than ''E. megalops''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5396511 Stomatopoda Taxa named by Raymond B. Manning