Family SERGESTIDAE Dana, 1852

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Family SERGESTIDAE Dana, 1852

Compiler and date details

April 2012 - Peter Davie, Queensland Museum

Sergestidae Dana, J.D. 1852. Conspectus Crustaceorum quae in Orbis Terrarum circumnavigatione, Carolo Wilkes e classe Reipublicae Foederatae Duce, lexit et descripsit. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 6: 10-28 [18] [placed on the Official List of Family-Group Names in Zoology, see International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1969. Opinion 864. Penaeid generic names (Crustacea, Decapoda): addition of twenty-eight to the Official List. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 25: 138–147].
Type genus:
Sergestes H. Milne Edwards, 1830.
Secondary source:
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1969. Opinion 864. Penaeid generic names (Crustacea, Decapoda): addition of twenty-eight to the Official List. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 25: 138-147.

Introduction

The combination of a short rostrum and reduced last pereopods serve to characterise sergestid shrimps. Sergestids differ from other dendrobranchiates in having swimming legs fringed with long setae, although the number of legs may be fewer than the expected five pairs. Most are small pelagic species from offshore environments over and beyond the continental shelf. Only species of Acetes are found in bays and shallow water.

Hansen (1919, 1922) pioneered the systematics of Sergestidae. Pérez Farfante & Kensley (1997) recognised six genera but Judkins & Kensley (2008) divided one, Sergestes, into six genera. Vereshchaka (2014) further divided Sergestes and Sergia into species groups and provided keys to all species.

The Australian Paste Shrimp (Acetes sibodae) forms large swarms in brackish estuarine waters along the eastern Australian coast, but the greatest number of species are oceanic and occur in meso- or bathypelagic depths. The most useful recent references dealing with the deep water Australian species include Griffith & Brandt (1983a, 1983b), Griffiths & Wadley (1986) and Wasmer (1993).

Diagnosis

Body typically shrimp-like; integument soft, stiff but not rigid. Rostrum short, erect blade, sometimes with few teeth. Postorbital spine present. With no more than 2 branchiae per thoracic somite, at most 8 on each side.