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Family: Alpheidae
Big-clawed Snapping Shrimp
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Bocas Species Database Habitat: The species will favor habitats such as mudflats, mangroves, salt marshes, and mud bottoms with rocks. It will be often associated with oysters and this species can be found in habitats with a wide range of salinity. Distribution: This species has been reported from the Western Atlantic in North Carolina and from the Gulf of Mexico to Brazil. A. heterochaelis is commonly found in the waters of Bocas del Toro. Natural History Notes: Alpheus heterochaelis is probably the best studied alpheid shrimp and one of the best known decapods. It has been used for neurophysiology and larval development studies. Those studies helped to learn more about the behavior of this particular species. So far, we know that A. heterochaelis builds sandy or muddy burrows, where a female-pair will live. It is thought that males search for the females using chemical cues. Snapping will be used as a mode of communication and as a way to indicate the size and the sex of the emitter. In 2001, a study conducted by Herberholtz and Schmitz showed that this alpheid shrimp also communicate using water currents. Alpheus heterochaelis would also use its snapping claw to smash clams species such as Mercenaria mercenaria and could injure mud flat crab species, even if this shrimp is often associated with a mud crab species called Panopeus herbstii. A. heterochaelis is similar to Alpheus firmus and A. pontederiae. When based only on morphological characteristics, A. angulatus has often been mistaken with A. heterochaelis in habitats where both species occur sympatrically. However, they are highly divergent electrophoretically. Depth: Intertidal to about 9 m Characteristics: The species Alpheus heterochaelis can reach a body length of at least 45 mm. |