Biogeography of deep-sea stomatopod Crustacea, family Bathysquillidae

Abstract

One family of stomatopod crustaceans, the Bathysquillidae, occurs exclusively on outer shelf and upper slope habitats, in depths between about 200 and 1500m. Stomatopoda otherwise are largely restricted to shallow water habitats. The bathysquillids include four species in three genera. Bathysquilla microps occurs in both Atlantic and Pacific oceans, B. crassispinosa is found across the Indo-West Pacific from Japan to South Africa, Altosquilla soelae is known only from the northwestern coast of Australia, and Indosquilla manihinei, originally reported from the western Indian Ocean, is here reported from the Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The bathysquillids, with a fossil species in the Eocene, represent the oldest extent stock of Stomatopoda. The structure of the uropod in Indosquilla manihinei is intermediate between that of the fossil family Sculdidae and the Recent stomatopods.