Litopenaeus setiferus

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Diagram of Litopenaeus setiferus

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, ) is a species of prawn found along the Atlantic coast of North America and in the Gulf of Mexico. It was the subject of the earliest shrimp fishery in the United States.

Distribution

The range of L. setiferus extends from Fire Island, New York to Ciudad Campeche, Mexico. It requires warm water, and is unable to survive below Template:Convert, with appreciable growth only occurring at temperatures over Template:Convert.

Description

Litopenaeus setiferus may reach a total length (excluding antennae) of Template:Convert, 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 uropods and telson are green. The rostrum is long and thin, with 5–11 teeth on the upper edge and two on the lower edge, and continues along the carapace as a dorsal carina (ridge). Deep grooves alongside the carina separate the related species Farfantepenaeus aztecus ("brown shrimp") and Farfantepenaeus duorarum ("pink shrimp") from L. setiferus, which is sometimes called the non-grooved shrimp.Template:Rp

Ecology

Litopenaeus setiferus lives in estuaries and from the littoral zone to water with a depth of Template:Convert in the Atlantic, or up to Template:Convert in the Gulf of Mexico. Litopenaeus setiferus is an omnivore; in Lake Pontchartrain, it feeds chiefly on the seagrass Vallisneria americana and detritus. Many aquatic animals feed on L. setiferus, including fish such as red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) and turtles such as the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta).

Life cycle

Spawning 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 Template:Convert of the shoreline, in water less than Template:Convert deep in the Atlantic, or Template:Convert deep in the Gulf of Mexico. Males attach a spermatophore 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 Template:Convert across, which sink to the bottom of the water column.

After 10–12 hours, the eggs hatch into nauplius larvae, which are Template:Convert long, planktonic and unable to feed. They molt five times to reach the protozoa stage, Template:Convert long. These grow to Template:Convert 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 Template:Convert, they begin to enter estuaries 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.

Other references

• White shrimp NOAA FishWatch. Retrieved 4 November 2012.