I have collected the specimen of the shrimp from coral reef habitat located on North Western coast of India.
It is not a shrimp but resembles like a anomuran crab. Plz refer the following link
www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2008/f/zt01905p220.pdf
Dear Trivedi,
I agree, it is not a shrimp. This is a squat lobster, probably belonging to the family Munididae, although you should check with an identification key in order to be sure of the genus.
I disagree with the previous respondents. While I am not familiar with the Indian Ocean fauna, I am familiar with Munidae from the northwest Atlantic, and this is no squat lobster. How many thoracic legs does it have? Including the claws, munids have only four pairs; the claws are the first pair. All Anomurans have 4 or fewer pairs. True shrimps have 5; the enlarged claws are either the first or second pair. I think the latter is the case with your critter (top view). The bodies of munids are characteristically flattened dorso-ventrally, the abdomen, while well-developed for swimming, is typically folded beneath the body. The rostrum (forward pointing extension of the carapace between the eyes) consists of a single straight, toothless spike surrounded by a pair of supraorbital spikes, and the claws are long and slender, including the fingers of the claws. This critter is not dorso-ventrally flattened, its abdomen is fully extended posteriorly, it has a toothed rostrum (side view) and the the claws are expanded and robust. Calianassid shrimps (Anomurans like squat lobsters) look more like your specimens, but again, they have only 4 pairs of legs and almost no rostrum at all. Again, the photo is not entirely clear, but it looks like side plate (pleura) of the second abdominal segment is expanded ventrally and overlaps both the first and third segments (side view). That's absolutely characteristic of Infraorder Caridea (Caridean shrimps). I'm not sure which family, but I think this is indeed a true shrimp.
Anomura have five pairs of pereiopods but the fifth and sometimes the fourth are shorter and thinner.
it is stenopoid shrimp... from Pakistan Microprosthema ? validum is reported
A stenopid is quite likely. The species I am aware of (Stenopus spp.) indeed have robust claws as seen in the photos. Again, check out that second abdominal segment; if the pleura do not overlap both the first and third pleura, it is a stenopid. If they do overlap, it is a caridean. For this kind of identification you need a specimen in hand and a good key. Sorry I can't help with the latter for the Indian Ocean. Attached are some squat lobster photos. I don't have any for stenopids.
Thank you all for your valuable comments. I have identified the species. It is Microprosthema validum
Indian and Pakistani specimens are neither M. validum nor M. semilaeve but represent an undescribed species of
Microprosthema (de Saint-Laurent & Cleva 1981; Felder et al. 1985; Goy 1987; Goy & Felder 1988; Martin &
Goy 2004).
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