Prawn
Encyclopedia
Prawns are decapod
crustacean
s of the sub-order Dendrobranchiata. There are 540 extant species, in seven families, and a fossil record extending back to the Devonian
. They differ from other, similar crustaceans, such as Caridea (shrimp) and Stenopodidea
(boxer shrimp) by the branching form of the gill
s and by the fact that they do not brood their eggs, but release them directly into the water. They may reach a length of over 330 millimetres (13 in) and a mass of 450 gram (0.992080179831949 lb), and are widely fished
and farmed
for human consumption.
s and prawns belong to different suborder
s of Decapoda
, they are very similar in appearance. In commercial farming and fisheries
, the terms "shrimp" and "prawn" are often used interchangeably. However, recent aquaculture
literature increasingly uses the term "prawn" only for the freshwater forms of palaemonids and "shrimp" for the marine penaeids
.
In the United Kingdom
, the word "prawn" is more common on menus than "shrimp"; while the opposite is the case in North America
. The term "prawn" is also loosely used to describe any large shrimp, especially those that come 15 (or fewer) to the pound (such as "king prawns", yet sometimes known as "jumbo shrimp"). Australia
and some other Commonwealth
nations follow this British usage to an even greater extent, using the word "prawn" almost exclusively. When Australian comedian Paul Hogan
used the phrase, "I'll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you"
in an American television advertisement, it was intended to make what he was saying easier for his American audience to understand, and was thus a deliberate distortion of what an Australian would typically say.
(head and thorax fused together) and a pleon
(abdomen). The body is generally slightly flattened side-to-side. The largest species, Penaeus monodon
, can reach a mass
of 450 grams (15.9 oz) and a length of 336 millimetres (13.2 in).
. The first pair are biramous (having two flagella
), except in Luciferidae, and are relatively small. The second pair can be 2–3 times the length of the body and are always uniramous (having a single flagellum). The mouthparts comprise pairs of mandibles, maxillules and maxillae, arising from the head, and three pairs of maxillipeds, arising from the thorax. A pair of stalked eye
s points forwards from the head.
grows from the thorax to cover the cephalothorax, and extends forwards between the eyes into a rostrum
. This is only as long as the stalked eyes in Benthesicymidae, Luciferidae and Sergestidae
, but considerably longer in Aristeidae.
As well as the three pairs of maxillipeds, the thorax also bears five pairs of pereiopods, or walking legs; the first three of these end in small claw
s. The last two pereiopods are absent in Luciferidae and Acetes
, but much longer than the preceding pereiopods in Hymenopenaeus and Xiphopenaeus.
The thoracic appendages carry gill
s, which are protected beneath the carapace. The gills are typically branched, and so resemble trees, lending the group its scientific name, Dendrobranchiata, from the Greek words (, tree
) and (, gill).
collectively form the tail fan; the uropods are not divided by a diaeresis, as they are in many other decapods. The telson is pointed and is usually armed with four pairs of seta
e or spines
.
of a prawn is used for bending the pleon, and almost all the space in the pleon is filled by muscle. More than 17 muscles operate each of the pleopods, and a further 16 power the tail fan in the rapid backward movement of the caridoid escape reaction
. These muscles, collectively, are the meat for which prawns are commercially fished and farmed.
The nervous system
of prawns comprises a dorsal brain
, and a ventral nerve cord
, connected by two commissure
s around the oesophagus. The chief sensory inputs are visual input from the eyes, chemoreceptors on the antennae and in the mouth, and mechanoreceptor
s on the antennae and elsewhere.
The digestive system comprises a foregut, a midgut and a hindgut, and is situated dorsally. The foregut begins at the mouth, passes through the oesophagus, and opens into a sac which contains the grinding apparatus of the gastric mill. The hepatopancreas
feeds into the midgut, where digestive enzyme
s are releaesed, and nutrients taken up. The hindgut forms faecal pellets, which are then passed out through the muscular anus
.
The circulatory system
is based around a compact, triangular heart
, which pumps blood into three main arteries
. Excretion
is carried out through the gills, and by specialised gland
s located at the base of the antennae, and is mostly in the form of ammonia
.
Prawns may be divided into two groups: those with an open thelycum (female genitalia) and those with a closed thelycum. In the open–thelycum species, mating takes place towards the end of the moulting cycle, and usually at sunset. In closed–thelycum species, mating takes place shortly after moulting, when the exoskeleton
is still soft, and usually occurs in the night. Courtship
and mating may take up to 3 hours in Penaeus monodon
, while in Farfantepenaeus paulensis, mating lasts just 4–5 seconds. Spawning may occur several times during the moulting cycle, and usually occurs at night.
With the exception of Luciferidae, the eggs
of prawns are shed directly into the water, rather than being brooded. The eggs hatch into nauplius larvae
, which are followed by zoea larvae (initially protozoea, and later mysis) and then a postlarva, before reaching adulthood. The changes between moults
are gradual, and so the development is anamorphic
rather than metamorphic
.
Uniquely among the Decapoda, the nauplii of Dendrobranchiata are free-swimming. There are 5 to 8 naupliar stages. The earlier stages have three pairs of appendages which are used for locomotion – two pairs of antennae
and the mandibles. Later stages also have rudiments of other mouthparts, but the nauplius is unable to feed, and only lasts 24 to 68 hours. The body ends at a two-lobed telson
, and the beginnings of a carapace
emerge at this stage.
There are typically 5 or 6 zoea stages in Dendrobranchiata, divided into protozoea and mysis. In the protozoea larvae, the antennae are still used for locomotion, but the mandibles become specialised for mastication
. All the thoracic somites (body segments) have formed, and a carapace
is present, covering part of the thorax. It is smooth in the family Penaeidae
, but bears many spines in the family Solenoceridae. The pleon
(abdomen) is unsegmented in the first protozoea, and ends in a bilobed telson, which may be used for cleaning other appendages, or for steering. By the second protozoea, segmentation appears on the pleon, and by the third protozoea, which may also be called the metazoea, the uropods have appeared.
By the mysis stages, the pereiopods (thoracic appendages) start to be used instead of the antennae for locomotion. The larva swims backwards, with its tail upwards, spinning slowly as it goes. The carapace covers most of the segments of the thorax, and claws appear on the first three pereiopods. By the last mysis stage, the beginnings of pleopods have appeared on the first five segments of the abdomen.
The post-larva or juvenile stage is characterised by the use of the pleopods for locomotion. The claws become functional, but the gill
s are still rudimentary. The telson is narrower and only retains traces of its two-lobed development. Through a series of gradual changes over following moults, the animal takes on its adult form.
recognised the differences in gill morphology, and separated Natantia into Dendrobranchiata, Phyllobranchiata and Trichobranchiata. Recent analyses using cladistics
and molecular phylogenetics recognise Dendrobranchiata as the sister group to all other Decapoda, collectively called Pleocyemata
.
Before 2010, the earliest known fossil prawns come from rocks in Madagascar
of Permo
-Triassic
age, . In 2010, however, the discovery of Aciculopoda
from Famennian
–stage rocks in Oklahoma
extended the group's fossil record back to . The best known fossil prawns are from the Jurassic
Solnhofen limestone
s from Germany
.
Living prawns are divided among seven families, five in the superfamily Penaeoidea
, and two in the Sergestoidea
, although molecular evidence disagrees with some aspects of the current classifications. Collectively, these include 540 extant species, and nearly 100 exclusively fossil species. A further two families are known only from fossils.
Suborder Penaeoidea
Rafinesque-Schmaltz, 1815
Suborder Sergestoidea
Dana, 1852
of Dendrobranchiata decreases markedly at increasing latitude
s; most species are only found in a region between 40° north
and 40° south
. Some species may occur at higher latitudes. For instance, Bentheogennema borealis is abundant at 57° north
in the Pacific Ocean
, while collections of Gennadas kempi have been made as far south as 61° south
in the Antarctic Ocean.
There is a great deal of ecological variation within the suborder Dendrobranchiata. Some species of Sergestidae lives in fresh water
, but most prawns are exclusively marine. Species of Sergestidae
, Benthesicymidae and Sergestidae
mostly live in deep water, and Solenoceridae species live offshore, while most Penaeidae
species lives in shallow inshore waters, and Lucifer
is plankton
ic. Some species burrow in mud on the sea floor during the day and emerge at night to feed.
Prawns are "opportunistic omnivores", and their diet
can include a range of food items from fine particles to large organisms. These may include fish
, chaetognaths, krill
, copepod
s, radiolarians, phytoplankton
, nematocysts, ostracod
s and detritus
. Prawns eat less around the time of ecdysis
(moulting), probably because of the softness of the mouthparts, and must eat more than usual to compensate, once ecdysis is complete.
Prawns are an attractive food for predators, with a higher energy content than most other invertebrates. The larvae are prey to comb jellies, jellyfish
, chaetognaths, fish
and other crustacean
s (such as mantis shrimp
and crab
s), and only a tiny proportion survive. Juveniles are targeted by a number of fish, cephalopod
s and bird
s; Litopenaeus vannamei juveniles experience 90% mortality in the 6–12 weeks they spend in Mexican lagoon
s, and this is thought to be due almost entirely to predation. Adult prawns are less susceptible to predation, but can fall prey to some fish
.
Dendrobranchiata are of huge importance. While in some countries, such as the United States
, production is almost entirely through fisheries
, other countries have concentrated on aquaculture
(shrimp farm
s), including Ecuador
where 95% of production is farmed
; some countries produce similar amounts from fisheries and aquaculture, including Mexico
, China
, India
and Indonesia
.
Species from the family Aristeidae are important to deep-water fisheries, particularly in the Mediterranean Sea
, where Aristaeomorpha foliacea is caught by trawlers. In Brazil
, Aristaeomorpha foliacea, Aristaeopsis edwardsiana and Aristeus antillensis are of commercial importance. The shallow-water Penaeidae
are of greater importance, however, and the most important species for fisheries is Fenneropenaeus chinensis, with a catch in 2005 of over 100,000 tons.
The most important species for aquaculture
are Marsupenaeus japonicus (Kuruma prawn), Fenneropenaeus chinensis (Chinese prawn), Penaeus monodon
(giant tiger prawn) and Litopenaeus vannamei (whiteleg prawn).
Decapoda
The decapods or Decapoda are an order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, including many familiar groups, such as crayfish, crabs, lobsters, prawns and shrimp. Most decapods are scavengers. It is estimated that the order contains nearly 15,000 species in around 2,700 genera, with...
crustacean
Crustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
s of the sub-order Dendrobranchiata. There are 540 extant species, in seven families, and a fossil record extending back to the Devonian
Devonian
The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from the end of the Silurian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya , to the beginning of the Carboniferous Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya...
. They differ from other, similar crustaceans, such as Caridea (shrimp) and Stenopodidea
Stenopodidea
The Stenopodidea is a small group of decapod crustaceans. Often confused with shrimp or prawns, they are neither, but belong in a group closer to the reptant decapods, such as lobsters and crabs. They may be easily recognised by their third pereiopod , which is greatly enlarged...
(boxer shrimp) by the branching form of the gill
Gill
A gill is a respiratory organ found in many aquatic organisms that extracts dissolved oxygen from water, afterward excreting carbon dioxide. The gills of some species such as hermit crabs have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are kept moist...
s and by the fact that they do not brood their eggs, but release them directly into the water. They may reach a length of over 330 millimetres (13 in) and a mass of 450 gram (0.992080179831949 lb), and are widely fished
Shrimp fishery
A shrimp fishery is a fishery directed toward harvesting either shrimp or prawns. .-Commercial shrimping:...
and farmed
Shrimp farm
A shrimp farm is an aquaculture business for the cultivation of marine shrimp or prawns for human consumption. Commercial shrimp farming began in the 1970s, and production grew steeply, particularly to match the market demands of the United States, Japan and Western Europe...
for human consumption.
Shrimp and prawns
While in biological terms shrimpShrimp
Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...
s and prawns belong to different suborder
Order (biology)
In scientific classification used in biology, the order is# a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, and species, with order fitting in between class and family...
s of Decapoda
Decapoda
The decapods or Decapoda are an order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, including many familiar groups, such as crayfish, crabs, lobsters, prawns and shrimp. Most decapods are scavengers. It is estimated that the order contains nearly 15,000 species in around 2,700 genera, with...
, they are very similar in appearance. In commercial farming and fisheries
Fishery
Generally, a fishery is an entity engaged in raising or harvesting fish which is determined by some authority to be a fishery. According to the FAO, a fishery is typically defined in terms of the "people involved, species or type of fish, area of water or seabed, method of fishing, class of boats,...
, the terms "shrimp" and "prawn" are often used interchangeably. However, recent aquaculture
Aquaculture
Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the...
literature increasingly uses the term "prawn" only for the freshwater forms of palaemonids and "shrimp" for the marine penaeids
Penaeidae
Penaeidae is a family of prawns, although they are often referred to as penaeid shrimp. It contains many species of economic importance, such as the tiger prawn , whiteleg shrimp, Atlantic white shrimp and Indian prawn. Many prawns are the subject of commercial fishery, and farming, both in marine...
.
In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the word "prawn" is more common on menus than "shrimp"; while the opposite is the case in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. The term "prawn" is also loosely used to describe any large shrimp, especially those that come 15 (or fewer) to the pound (such as "king prawns", yet sometimes known as "jumbo shrimp"). Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and some other Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
nations follow this British usage to an even greater extent, using the word "prawn" almost exclusively. When Australian comedian Paul Hogan
Paul Hogan
Paul Hogan, AM is an Australian actor best known for his role as Michael "Crocodile" Dundee from the Crocodile Dundee film series, for which he won a Golden Globe award.-Early life and career:...
used the phrase, "I'll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you"
Shrimp on the barbie
"Shrimp on the barbie" is an often-quoted phrase that originated in a series of television advertisements by the Australian Tourism Commission starring Paul Hogan from 1984 through to 1990. The actual quote spoken by Hogan is "I'll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you", and the actual slogan...
in an American television advertisement, it was intended to make what he was saying easier for his American audience to understand, and was thus a deliberate distortion of what an Australian would typically say.
Description
Together with other swimming Decapoda, Dendrobranchiata show the "caridoid facies", or shrimp-like form. The body is typically robust, and can be divided into a cephalothoraxCephalothorax
The cephalothorax is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. The word cephalothorax is derived from the Greek words for head and thorax...
(head and thorax fused together) and a pleon
Pleon
Pleon is a Europe based Public Relations and communications consultancy. It is part of the Brodeur Pleon Worldwide network and a subsidiary of BBDO Worldwide. Pleon belongs to the Omnicom Group. Pleon is headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany.- Overview :...
(abdomen). The body is generally slightly flattened side-to-side. The largest species, Penaeus monodon
Penaeus monodon
Penaeus monodon, the giant tiger prawn , is a marine crustacean that is widely reared for food.-Distribution:...
, can reach a mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
of 450 grams (15.9 oz) and a length of 336 millimetres (13.2 in).
Head
The most conspicuous appendages arising from the head are the antennaeAntenna (biology)
Antennae in biology have historically been paired appendages used for sensing in arthropods. More recently, the term has also been applied to cilium structures present in most cell types of eukaryotes....
. The first pair are biramous (having two flagella
Flagellum
A flagellum is a tail-like projection that protrudes from the cell body of certain prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, and plays the dual role of locomotion and sense organ, being sensitive to chemicals and temperatures outside the cell. There are some notable differences between prokaryotic and...
), except in Luciferidae, and are relatively small. The second pair can be 2–3 times the length of the body and are always uniramous (having a single flagellum). The mouthparts comprise pairs of mandibles, maxillules and maxillae, arising from the head, and three pairs of maxillipeds, arising from the thorax. A pair of stalked eye
Eye
Eyes are organs that detect light and convert it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons. The simplest photoreceptors in conscious vision connect light to movement...
s points forwards from the head.
Thorax
The carapaceCarapace
A carapace is a dorsal section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the underside is called the plastron.-Crustaceans:In crustaceans, the...
grows from the thorax to cover the cephalothorax, and extends forwards between the eyes into a rostrum
Rostrum (anatomy)
The term rostrum is used for a number of unrelated structures in different groups of animals:*In crustaceans, the rostrum is the forward extension of the carapace in front of the eyes....
. This is only as long as the stalked eyes in Benthesicymidae, Luciferidae and Sergestidae
Sergestidae
Sergestidae is a family of prawns which have lived since at least the Albian age . It contains the following genera :*Acetes H...
, but considerably longer in Aristeidae.
As well as the three pairs of maxillipeds, the thorax also bears five pairs of pereiopods, or walking legs; the first three of these end in small claw
Claw
A claw is a curved, pointed appendage, found at the end of a toe or finger in most mammals, birds, and some reptiles. However, the word "claw" is also often used in reference to an invertebrate. Somewhat similar fine hooked structures are found in arthropods such as beetles and spiders, at the end...
s. The last two pereiopods are absent in Luciferidae and Acetes
Acetes
Acetes is a genus of prawns. Several of its species are important for the production of shrimp paste in South East Asia, including Acetes japonicus, which is the world's most heavily fished species of shrimp or prawn.-Description:...
, but much longer than the preceding pereiopods in Hymenopenaeus and Xiphopenaeus.
The thoracic appendages carry gill
Gill
A gill is a respiratory organ found in many aquatic organisms that extracts dissolved oxygen from water, afterward excreting carbon dioxide. The gills of some species such as hermit crabs have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are kept moist...
s, which are protected beneath the carapace. The gills are typically branched, and so resemble trees, lending the group its scientific name, Dendrobranchiata, from the Greek words (, tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
) and (, gill).
Pleon
The pleon, or abdomen, is similar in length to the cephalothorax. It has six segments, the first five bearing lamellar pleopods, and the last one bearing uropods. The pleopods are biramous, except in Sicyoniidae, where they are uniramous. The uropods and telsonTelson
The telson is the last division of the body of a crustacean. It is not considered a true segment because it does not arise in the embryo from teloblast areas as do real segments. It never carries any appendages, but a forked "tail" called the caudal furca is often present. Together with the...
collectively form the tail fan; the uropods are not divided by a diaeresis, as they are in many other decapods. The telson is pointed and is usually armed with four pairs of seta
Seta
Seta is a biological term derived from the Latin word for "bristle". It refers to a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms.-Animal setae:In zoology, most "setae" occur in invertebrates....
e or spines
Spine (zoology)
A spine is a hard, thorny or needle-like structure which occurs on various animals. Animals such as porcupines and sea urchins grow spines as a self-defense mechanism. Spines are often formed of keratin...
.
Internal anatomy
Most of the musculatureMuscle
Muscle is a contractile tissue of animals and is derived from the mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells. Muscle cells contain contractile filaments that move past each other and change the size of the cell. They are classified as skeletal, cardiac, or smooth muscles. Their function is to...
of a prawn is used for bending the pleon, and almost all the space in the pleon is filled by muscle. More than 17 muscles operate each of the pleopods, and a further 16 power the tail fan in the rapid backward movement of the caridoid escape reaction
Caridoid escape reaction
The Caridoid Escape Reaction, also known as lobstering or tail-flipping, refers to an innate escape mechanism in marine and freshwater crustaceans such as lobsters, krill, shrimp and crayfish....
. These muscles, collectively, are the meat for which prawns are commercially fished and farmed.
The nervous system
Nervous system
The nervous system is an organ system containing a network of specialized cells called neurons that coordinate the actions of an animal and transmit signals between different parts of its body. In most animals the nervous system consists of two parts, central and peripheral. The central nervous...
of prawns comprises a dorsal brain
Brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
, and a ventral nerve cord
Ventral nerve cord
The ventral nerve cord makes up the nervous system of some phyla of the invertebrates, particularly within the nematodes, annelids and the arthropods. It usually consists of cerebral ganglia anteriorly with the nerve cords running down the ventral plane of the organism...
, connected by two commissure
Commissure
A commissure is the place where two things are joined. The term is used especially in the fields of anatomy and biology.In anatomy, commissure refers to a bundle of nerve fibers that cross the midline at their level of origin or entry .* The most common usage of the term refers to the brain's...
s around the oesophagus. The chief sensory inputs are visual input from the eyes, chemoreceptors on the antennae and in the mouth, and mechanoreceptor
Mechanoreceptor
A mechanoreceptor is a sensory receptor that responds to mechanical pressure or distortion. There are four main types in the glabrous skin of humans: Pacinian corpuscles, Meissner's corpuscles, Merkel's discs, and Ruffini corpuscles...
s on the antennae and elsewhere.
The digestive system comprises a foregut, a midgut and a hindgut, and is situated dorsally. The foregut begins at the mouth, passes through the oesophagus, and opens into a sac which contains the grinding apparatus of the gastric mill. The hepatopancreas
Hepatopancreas
The hepatopancreas, digestive gland or midgut gland is an organ of the digestive tract of arthropods, molluscs and fish. It provides the functions which in mammals are provided separately by the liver and pancreas, including the production of digestive enzymes, and absorption of digested...
feeds into the midgut, where digestive enzyme
Digestive enzyme
'Digestive enzymes' are enzymes that break down polymeric macromolecules into their smaller building blocks, in order to facilitate their absorption by the body. Digestive enzymes are found in the digestive tract of animals where they aid in the digestion of food as well as inside the cells,...
s are releaesed, and nutrients taken up. The hindgut forms faecal pellets, which are then passed out through the muscular anus
Anus
The anus is an opening at the opposite end of an animal's digestive tract from the mouth. Its function is to control the expulsion of feces, unwanted semi-solid matter produced during digestion, which, depending on the type of animal, may be one or more of: matter which the animal cannot digest,...
.
The circulatory system
Circulatory system
The circulatory system is an organ system that passes nutrients , gases, hormones, blood cells, etc...
is based around a compact, triangular heart
Heart
The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
, which pumps blood into three main arteries
Artery
Arteries are blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart. This blood is normally oxygenated, exceptions made for the pulmonary and umbilical arteries....
. Excretion
Excretion
Excretion is the process by which waste products of metabolism and other non-useful materials are eliminated from an organism. This is primarily carried out by the lungs, kidneys and skin. This is in contrast with secretion, where the substance may have specific tasks after leaving the cell...
is carried out through the gills, and by specialised gland
Gland
A gland is an organ in an animal's body that synthesizes a substance for release of substances such as hormones or breast milk, often into the bloodstream or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface .- Types :...
s located at the base of the antennae, and is mostly in the form of ammonia
Ammonia
Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . It is a colourless gas with a characteristic pungent odour. Ammonia contributes significantly to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms by serving as a precursor to food and fertilizers. Ammonia, either directly or...
.
Life cycle
Exoskeleton
An exoskeleton is the external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to the internal skeleton of, for example, a human. In popular usage, some of the larger kinds of exoskeletons are known as "shells". Examples of exoskeleton animals include insects such as grasshoppers...
is still soft, and usually occurs in the night. Courtship
Courtship
Courtship is the period in a couple's relationship which precedes their engagement and marriage, or establishment of an agreed relationship of a more enduring kind. In courtship, a couple get to know each other and decide if there will be an engagement or other such agreement...
and mating may take up to 3 hours in Penaeus monodon
Penaeus monodon
Penaeus monodon, the giant tiger prawn , is a marine crustacean that is widely reared for food.-Distribution:...
, while in Farfantepenaeus paulensis, mating lasts just 4–5 seconds. Spawning may occur several times during the moulting cycle, and usually occurs at night.
With the exception of Luciferidae, the eggs
Egg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
of prawns are shed directly into the water, rather than being brooded. The eggs hatch into nauplius larvae
Crustacean larvae
Crustaceans may pass through a number of larval and immature stages between hatching from their eggs and reaching their adult form. Each of the stages is separated by a moult, in which the hard exoskeleton is shed to allow the animal to grow...
, which are followed by zoea larvae (initially protozoea, and later mysis) and then a postlarva, before reaching adulthood. The changes between moults
Ecdysis
Ecdysis is the moulting of the cuticula in many invertebrates. This process of moulting is the defining feature of the clade Ecdysozoa, comprising the arthropods, nematodes, velvet worms, horsehair worms, rotifers, tardigrades and Cephalorhyncha...
are gradual, and so the development is anamorphic
Anamorphosis (biology)
Anamorphosis or Anamorphogenesis refers to metamorphosis in Arthropoda that results in the addition of abdominal body segments, even after sexual maturity....
rather than metamorphic
Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation...
.
Uniquely among the Decapoda, the nauplii of Dendrobranchiata are free-swimming. There are 5 to 8 naupliar stages. The earlier stages have three pairs of appendages which are used for locomotion – two pairs of antennae
Antenna (biology)
Antennae in biology have historically been paired appendages used for sensing in arthropods. More recently, the term has also been applied to cilium structures present in most cell types of eukaryotes....
and the mandibles. Later stages also have rudiments of other mouthparts, but the nauplius is unable to feed, and only lasts 24 to 68 hours. The body ends at a two-lobed telson
Telson
The telson is the last division of the body of a crustacean. It is not considered a true segment because it does not arise in the embryo from teloblast areas as do real segments. It never carries any appendages, but a forked "tail" called the caudal furca is often present. Together with the...
, and the beginnings of a carapace
Carapace
A carapace is a dorsal section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the underside is called the plastron.-Crustaceans:In crustaceans, the...
emerge at this stage.
There are typically 5 or 6 zoea stages in Dendrobranchiata, divided into protozoea and mysis. In the protozoea larvae, the antennae are still used for locomotion, but the mandibles become specialised for mastication
Mastication
Mastication or chewing is the process by which food is crushed and ground by teeth. It is the first step of digestion and it increases the surface area of foods to allow more efficient break down by enzymes. During the mastication process, the food is positioned between the teeth for grinding by...
. All the thoracic somites (body segments) have formed, and a carapace
Carapace
A carapace is a dorsal section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the underside is called the plastron.-Crustaceans:In crustaceans, the...
is present, covering part of the thorax. It is smooth in the family Penaeidae
Penaeidae
Penaeidae is a family of prawns, although they are often referred to as penaeid shrimp. It contains many species of economic importance, such as the tiger prawn , whiteleg shrimp, Atlantic white shrimp and Indian prawn. Many prawns are the subject of commercial fishery, and farming, both in marine...
, but bears many spines in the family Solenoceridae. The pleon
Pleon
Pleon is a Europe based Public Relations and communications consultancy. It is part of the Brodeur Pleon Worldwide network and a subsidiary of BBDO Worldwide. Pleon belongs to the Omnicom Group. Pleon is headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany.- Overview :...
(abdomen) is unsegmented in the first protozoea, and ends in a bilobed telson, which may be used for cleaning other appendages, or for steering. By the second protozoea, segmentation appears on the pleon, and by the third protozoea, which may also be called the metazoea, the uropods have appeared.
By the mysis stages, the pereiopods (thoracic appendages) start to be used instead of the antennae for locomotion. The larva swims backwards, with its tail upwards, spinning slowly as it goes. The carapace covers most of the segments of the thorax, and claws appear on the first three pereiopods. By the last mysis stage, the beginnings of pleopods have appeared on the first five segments of the abdomen.
The post-larva or juvenile stage is characterised by the use of the pleopods for locomotion. The claws become functional, but the gill
Gill
A gill is a respiratory organ found in many aquatic organisms that extracts dissolved oxygen from water, afterward excreting carbon dioxide. The gills of some species such as hermit crabs have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are kept moist...
s are still rudimentary. The telson is narrower and only retains traces of its two-lobed development. Through a series of gradual changes over following moults, the animal takes on its adult form.
Systematics
Dendrobranchiata were traditionally grouped together with Caridea as "Natantia" (the swimming decapoda), as opposed to the Reptantia (the walking decapods). In 1888, Charles Spence BateCharles Spence Bate
Charles Spence Bate, or Spence Bate, FRS was a British zoologist and dentist, who who practiced first at Swansea, and then Plymouth, taking over his father's practice. He was an authority on the Crustacea, and a frequent correspondent of Charles Darwin, mostly concerning their shared interest in...
recognised the differences in gill morphology, and separated Natantia into Dendrobranchiata, Phyllobranchiata and Trichobranchiata. Recent analyses using cladistics
Cladistics
Cladistics is a method of classifying species of organisms into groups called clades, which consist of an ancestor organism and all its descendants . For example, birds, dinosaurs, crocodiles, and all descendants of their most recent common ancestor form a clade...
and molecular phylogenetics recognise Dendrobranchiata as the sister group to all other Decapoda, collectively called Pleocyemata
Pleocyemata
Pleocyemata is a sub-order of decapod crustaceans, erected by Martin Burkenroad in 1963. Burkenroad's classification replaced the earlier sub-orders of Natantia and Reptantia with the monophyletic groups Dendrobranchiata and Pleocyemata...
.
Before 2010, the earliest known fossil prawns come from rocks in Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
of Permo
Permian
The PermianThe term "Permian" was introduced into geology in 1841 by Sir Sir R. I. Murchison, president of the Geological Society of London, who identified typical strata in extensive Russian explorations undertaken with Edouard de Verneuil; Murchison asserted in 1841 that he named his "Permian...
-Triassic
Triassic
The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 250 to 200 Mya . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events...
age, . In 2010, however, the discovery of Aciculopoda
Aciculopoda
Aciculopoda is an extinct prawn which existed in what is now Oklahoma approximately . It was described in 2010 on the basis of a single fossil from Oklahoma. The single species, Aciculopoda mapesi, was named by Rodney Feldmann and Carrie Schweitzer in honour of Royal Mapes, a paleontologist who...
from Famennian
Famennian
The Famennian is one of two faunal stages in the Late Devonian epoch. It lasted from 374.5 ± 2.6 million years ago to 359.2 ± 2.5 million years ago. It was preceded by the Frasnian stage and followed by the Tournaisian stage and is named after Famenne, a natural region in southern Belgium.It was...
–stage rocks in Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
extended the group's fossil record back to . The best known fossil prawns are from the Jurassic
Jurassic
The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...
Solnhofen limestone
Solnhofen limestone
The Solnhofen Plattenkalk is a Jurassic Konservat-Lagerstätte that preserves a rare assemblage of fossilized organisms, including highly detailed imprints of soft bodied organisms such as sea jellies...
s from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
Living prawns are divided among seven families, five in the superfamily Penaeoidea
Penaeoidea
Penaeoidea is the larger of the two superfamilies of prawns. It comprises eight families, three of which are known only from fossils. The fossil record of the group stretches back to Aciculopoda, discovered in Famennian sediments in Oklahoma....
, and two in the Sergestoidea
Sergestoidea
Sergestoidea is a superfamily of prawns, divided into two families – the Luciferidae and the Sergestidae....
, although molecular evidence disagrees with some aspects of the current classifications. Collectively, these include 540 extant species, and nearly 100 exclusively fossil species. A further two families are known only from fossils.
Suborder Penaeoidea
Penaeoidea
Penaeoidea is the larger of the two superfamilies of prawns. It comprises eight families, three of which are known only from fossils. The fossil record of the group stretches back to Aciculopoda, discovered in Famennian sediments in Oklahoma....
Rafinesque-Schmaltz, 1815
- † AciculopodidaeAciculopodaAciculopoda is an extinct prawn which existed in what is now Oklahoma approximately . It was described in 2010 on the basis of a single fossil from Oklahoma. The single species, Aciculopoda mapesi, was named by Rodney Feldmann and Carrie Schweitzer in honour of Royal Mapes, a paleontologist who...
Feldmann & Schweitzer, 2010 – a single FamennianFamennianThe Famennian is one of two faunal stages in the Late Devonian epoch. It lasted from 374.5 ± 2.6 million years ago to 359.2 ± 2.5 million years ago. It was preceded by the Frasnian stage and followed by the Tournaisian stage and is named after Famenne, a natural region in southern Belgium.It was...
species, Aciculopoda mapesiAciculopodaAciculopoda is an extinct prawn which existed in what is now Oklahoma approximately . It was described in 2010 on the basis of a single fossil from Oklahoma. The single species, Aciculopoda mapesi, was named by Rodney Feldmann and Carrie Schweitzer in honour of Royal Mapes, a paleontologist who... - † AegeridaeAegeridaeAegeridae is a family of fossil prawns. It contains two genera, Aeger and Acanthochirana....
Burkenroad, 1963 – two Mesozoic genera: AegerAegerAeger is a genus of fossil prawns. They first occur in the Middle Triassic, and died out at the end of the Late Cretaceous. A total of 20 species are known....
and AcanthochiranaAcanthochiranaAcanthochirana is an extinct genus of prawn that existed during the upper Jurassic period. It was named by Strand in 1928, and contains five species, including Acanthochirana cordata. They are distinguished from the related genus Aeger by the presence of teeth on the rostrum, which are absent in... - Aristeidae Wood-Mason, 1891 – 26 extant species in 9 genera, and one fossil genus
- Benthesicymidae Wood-Mason, 1891 – 41 species in 4 genera
- † CarpopenaeidaeCarpopenaeusCarpopenaeus is an extinct genus of prawn, which existed during the Upper Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. It contains three species....
Garassino, 1994 – two CretaceousCretaceousThe Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
species of CarpopenaeusCarpopenaeusCarpopenaeus is an extinct genus of prawn, which existed during the Upper Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. It contains three species.... - PenaeidaePenaeidaePenaeidae is a family of prawns, although they are often referred to as penaeid shrimp. It contains many species of economic importance, such as the tiger prawn , whiteleg shrimp, Atlantic white shrimp and Indian prawn. Many prawns are the subject of commercial fishery, and farming, both in marine...
Rafinesque-Schmaltz, 1815 – 216 extant species in 26 genera, and several extinct genera, mostly Mesozoic - Sicyoniidae Ortmann, 1898 – 43 species of Sicyonia
- Solenoceridae Wood-Mason, 1891 – 81 species in 9 genera
Suborder Sergestoidea
Sergestoidea
Sergestoidea is a superfamily of prawns, divided into two families – the Luciferidae and the Sergestidae....
Dana, 1852
- LuciferidaeLucifer (prawn)Lucifer is a little-known and degenerate genus of prawns, the only genus in the family Luciferidae. Lucifer has a long body, but many fewer appendages than other prawns, with only three pairs of pereiopods remaining, all without claws. It also bears no gills. The females, uniquely among prawns,...
De Haan, 1849 – 7 species of LuciferLucifer (prawn)Lucifer is a little-known and degenerate genus of prawns, the only genus in the family Luciferidae. Lucifer has a long body, but many fewer appendages than other prawns, with only three pairs of pereiopods remaining, all without claws. It also bears no gills. The females, uniquely among prawns,... - SergestidaeSergestidaeSergestidae is a family of prawns which have lived since at least the Albian age . It contains the following genera :*Acetes H...
Dana, 1852 – 90 extant species in six genera, and two extinct monotypic genera
Distribution
The biodiversityBiodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
of Dendrobranchiata decreases markedly at increasing latitude
Latitude
In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...
s; most species are only found in a region between 40° north
40th parallel north
The 40th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 40 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean....
and 40° south
40th parallel south
The 40th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 40 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, Australasia, the Pacific Ocean and South America....
. Some species may occur at higher latitudes. For instance, Bentheogennema borealis is abundant at 57° north
57th parallel north
The 57th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 57 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean....
in the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
, while collections of Gennadas kempi have been made as far south as 61° south
61st parallel south
The 61st parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 61 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane. No land lies on the parallel—it crosses nothing but the Southern Ocean....
in the Antarctic Ocean.
Ecology and behaviour
Fresh Water
Fresh Water is the debut album by Australian rock and blues singer Alison McCallum, released in 1972. Rare for an Australian artist at the time, it came in a gatefold sleeve...
, but most prawns are exclusively marine. Species of Sergestidae
Sergestidae
Sergestidae is a family of prawns which have lived since at least the Albian age . It contains the following genera :*Acetes H...
, Benthesicymidae and Sergestidae
Sergestidae
Sergestidae is a family of prawns which have lived since at least the Albian age . It contains the following genera :*Acetes H...
mostly live in deep water, and Solenoceridae species live offshore, while most Penaeidae
Penaeidae
Penaeidae is a family of prawns, although they are often referred to as penaeid shrimp. It contains many species of economic importance, such as the tiger prawn , whiteleg shrimp, Atlantic white shrimp and Indian prawn. Many prawns are the subject of commercial fishery, and farming, both in marine...
species lives in shallow inshore waters, and Lucifer
Lucifer (prawn)
Lucifer is a little-known and degenerate genus of prawns, the only genus in the family Luciferidae. Lucifer has a long body, but many fewer appendages than other prawns, with only three pairs of pereiopods remaining, all without claws. It also bears no gills. The females, uniquely among prawns,...
is plankton
Plankton
Plankton are any drifting organisms that inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. That is, plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than phylogenetic or taxonomic classification...
ic. Some species burrow in mud on the sea floor during the day and emerge at night to feed.
Prawns are "opportunistic omnivores", and their diet
Diet
Diet, in relation to food, might mean:*Diet , the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group*Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake*Diet food, foods that aid in dieting...
can include a range of food items from fine particles to large organisms. These may include fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
, chaetognaths, krill
Krill
Krill is the common name given to the order Euphausiacea of shrimp-like marine crustaceans. Also known as euphausiids, these small invertebrates are found in all oceans of the world...
, copepod
Copepod
Copepods are a group of small crustaceans found in the sea and nearly every freshwater habitat. Some species are planktonic , some are benthic , and some continental species may live in limno-terrestrial habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as swamps, under leaf fall in wet forests,...
s, radiolarians, phytoplankton
Phytoplankton
Phytoplankton are the autotrophic component of the plankton community. The name comes from the Greek words φυτόν , meaning "plant", and πλαγκτός , meaning "wanderer" or "drifter". Most phytoplankton are too small to be individually seen with the unaided eye...
, nematocysts, ostracod
Ostracod
Ostracoda is a class of the Crustacea, sometimes known as the seed shrimp because of their appearance. Some 65,000 species have been identified, grouped into several orders....
s and detritus
Detritus
Detritus is a biological term used to describe dead or waste organic material.Detritus may also refer to:* Detritus , a geological term used to describe the particles of rock produced by weathering...
. Prawns eat less around the time of ecdysis
Ecdysis
Ecdysis is the moulting of the cuticula in many invertebrates. This process of moulting is the defining feature of the clade Ecdysozoa, comprising the arthropods, nematodes, velvet worms, horsehair worms, rotifers, tardigrades and Cephalorhyncha...
(moulting), probably because of the softness of the mouthparts, and must eat more than usual to compensate, once ecdysis is complete.
Prawns are an attractive food for predators, with a higher energy content than most other invertebrates. The larvae are prey to comb jellies, jellyfish
Jellyfish
Jellyfish are free-swimming members of the phylum Cnidaria. Medusa is another word for jellyfish, and refers to any free-swimming jellyfish stages in the phylum Cnidaria...
, chaetognaths, fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
and other crustacean
Crustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
s (such as mantis shrimp
Mantis shrimp
Mantis shrimp or stomatopods are marine crustaceans, the members of the order Stomatopoda. They are neither shrimp nor mantids, but receive their name purely from the physical resemblance to both the terrestrial praying mantis and the shrimp. They may reach in length, although exceptional cases of...
and crab
Crab
True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...
s), and only a tiny proportion survive. Juveniles are targeted by a number of fish, cephalopod
Cephalopod
A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda . These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head, and a set of arms or tentacles modified from the primitive molluscan foot...
s and bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s; Litopenaeus vannamei juveniles experience 90% mortality in the 6–12 weeks they spend in Mexican lagoon
Lagoon
A lagoon is a body of shallow sea water or brackish water separated from the sea by some form of barrier. The EU's habitat directive defines lagoons as "expanses of shallow coastal salt water, of varying salinity or water volume, wholly or partially separated from the sea by sand banks or shingle,...
s, and this is thought to be due almost entirely to predation. Adult prawns are less susceptible to predation, but can fall prey to some fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
.
Economic importance
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, production is almost entirely through fisheries
Shrimp fishery
A shrimp fishery is a fishery directed toward harvesting either shrimp or prawns. .-Commercial shrimping:...
, other countries have concentrated on aquaculture
Aquaculture
Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the...
(shrimp farm
Shrimp farm
A shrimp farm is an aquaculture business for the cultivation of marine shrimp or prawns for human consumption. Commercial shrimp farming began in the 1970s, and production grew steeply, particularly to match the market demands of the United States, Japan and Western Europe...
s), including Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
where 95% of production is farmed
Shrimp farm
A shrimp farm is an aquaculture business for the cultivation of marine shrimp or prawns for human consumption. Commercial shrimp farming began in the 1970s, and production grew steeply, particularly to match the market demands of the United States, Japan and Western Europe...
; some countries produce similar amounts from fisheries and aquaculture, including Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
.
Species from the family Aristeidae are important to deep-water fisheries, particularly in the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
, where Aristaeomorpha foliacea is caught by trawlers. In Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Aristaeomorpha foliacea, Aristaeopsis edwardsiana and Aristeus antillensis are of commercial importance. The shallow-water Penaeidae
Penaeidae
Penaeidae is a family of prawns, although they are often referred to as penaeid shrimp. It contains many species of economic importance, such as the tiger prawn , whiteleg shrimp, Atlantic white shrimp and Indian prawn. Many prawns are the subject of commercial fishery, and farming, both in marine...
are of greater importance, however, and the most important species for fisheries is Fenneropenaeus chinensis, with a catch in 2005 of over 100,000 tons.
The most important species for aquaculture
Aquaculture
Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the...
are Marsupenaeus japonicus (Kuruma prawn), Fenneropenaeus chinensis (Chinese prawn), Penaeus monodon
Penaeus monodon
Penaeus monodon, the giant tiger prawn , is a marine crustacean that is widely reared for food.-Distribution:...
(giant tiger prawn) and Litopenaeus vannamei (whiteleg prawn).