Litopenaeus

Litopenaeus
Litopenaeus stylirostris
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Clade: Pancrustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Dendrobranchiata
Family: Penaeidae
Genus: Litopenaeus
Pérez Farfante, 1969 

Litopenaeus is a subgenus of prawns, for some time considered as a separate genus. Its members were split from Penaeus in 1997, and returned as a subgenus in 2023. It contains five species:

Distribution

The western-Atlantic species P. (L.) setiferus and P. (L.) schmitii, both found in shallow waters, are similar in appearance, but can be distinguished by the structure of their genitals. They are allopatric: Penaeus setiferus in North America (including Gulf of Mexico), and Penaeus schmitii in the Caribbean, Central, and South America.

Penaeus (Litopenaeus) stylirostris and P. (L.) occidentalis are found in the eastern Pacific. P. (L.) vannamei is native to the eastern Pacific, is farmed globally, and has been introduced to American and Asian coasts.

Taxonomy

Litopenaeus was first defined in 1969 by Isabel Pérez Farfante, as one of four subgenera of Penaeus, the other three being Penaeus (nominate subgenus), Fenneropenaeus, and Melicertus. The members of Penaeus (Litopenaeus) differ from the other species by having open thylecae (the female sexual receptacle). She stated that the name is "from the Greek litos, meaning plain", and the type species was designated as P. (L.) vannamei.

Catalogues such as Holthuis 1980 included the subgenus in their organization of species. In 1997, Pérez Farfante and Brian Frederick Kensley proposed raising the subgenera, including Litopenaeus, to genus level. The change was disputed, but is evidenced in treatments such as De Grave et al. 2009, which lists Litopenaeus as a genus having five species.: 14 

In 2023, based on molecular phylogenetic analyses, Chan proposed a re-unification of Peneaus sensu lato, having eleven subgenera. Under this schema, Melicertus is split into multiple groups; Litopenaeus, Feneropenaeus, and Farfantepenaeus remain recognised groups and are returned to subgenus rank.   

Parasites

Litopenaeus is a suspected host of Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a pathogen of humans.

References

  1. ↑ Sammy De Grave (2011). "Litopenaeus Pérez Farfante, 1969". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved February 5, 2012.
  2. ↑ Isabel Pérez Farfante, Brian Frederick Kensley (1997). Penaeoid and Sergestoid Shrimps and Prawns of the World: Keys and Diagnoses for the Families and Genera. Mémoires du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. Vol. 175. Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. pp. 1–233. ISBN 978-2-85653-510-3.
  3. ↑ Chan, Tin-Yam (2023-01-17). "New subgeneric names for the most commercially important shrimp genus Penaeus Fabricius, 1798 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Penaeidae)". ZooKeys (1141): 29–40. Bibcode:2023ZooK.1141...29C. doi:10.3897/zookeys.1141.97349. ISSN 1313-2970. PMC 10207927. PMID 37234967.
  4. ↑ S. De Grave & C. H. J. M. Fransen (2011). "Carideorum Catalogus: the Recent species of the dendrobranchiate, stenopodidean, procarididean and caridean shrimps (Crustacea: Decapoda)". Zoologische Mededelingen. 85 (9): 195–589, figs. 1–59. ISBN 978-90-6519-200-4.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)
  5. 1 2 Perez Farfante, Isabel (1969). "Western Atlantic Shrimps of the Genus Penaeus". Fishery Bulletin. 69 (3). U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Bureau of Commercial Fisheries: 461–591 – via The OAKTrust Digital Repository.
  6. ↑ Department, FAO Fisheries. "FAO species catalogue. Vol. 1 Shrimps and prawns of the world. An annotated catalogue of species of interest to fisheries". www.fao.org. Archived from the original on 2026-07-25. Retrieved 2026-07-26.
  7. ↑ De Grave, Sammy; Pentcheff, N. Dean; Ahyong, Shane T.; Chan, Tin-Yam; Crandall, Keith A.; Dworschak, Peter C.; Felder, Darryl L.; Feldmann, Rodney M.; Fransen, Charles H. J. M.; Goulding, Laura Y. D.; Lemaitre, Rafael; Low, Martyn E. Y.; Martin, Joel W.; Ng, Peter K. L.; Schweitzer, Carrie E. (2009). "A Classification of Living and Fossil Genera of Decapod Crustaceans". Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 21 Supplement: 1–109. ISSN 0217-2445 – via Smithsonian Libraries and Archives.
  8. ↑ Chan, Tin-Yam (2023-01-17). "New subgeneric names for the most commercially important shrimp genus Penaeus Fabricius, 1798 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Penaeidae)". ZooKeys (1141): 29–40. Bibcode:2023ZooK.1141...29C. doi:10.3897/zookeys.1141.97349. ISSN 1313-2970. PMC 10207927. PMID 37234967.