Temperate Mantis Shrimp

There are several temperate water stomatopods as well as many that are found quite deep and therefore live in cooler waters. For example, there are four species of stomatopod found in Southern California living in water termperatures from 15-18 C. They are Hemisquilla californiensis, Pseudosquillopsis marmorata, Nannosquilla anomola, and Schmittius politus. N. anomola has only been taken from the Channel Islands (San Clemente Island) (5 - 23 M), S. politus occurs from Monterey Bay to Punta Abreojos, Mexico (12-185 m), H. californiensis from Point Conception to Golfo de Chirique, Panama (4 - 100 m, but generally found at 7 - 30 m), and P. marmorata occurs from Pt. Conception to the Galapagos Islands (0 - 100 m, usuall 3 - 30 m). As sea surface temperatures warm, some stomatopods maybe extending their ranges furture into temperate waters. I have found P. marmorata as far north as Tamales Bay and Hemisquilla larvae in Monterey Bay.

On the East Coast, there are several stomatopods reported from as far north as the Hudson River and Squilla empusa occurs as far north as Maine.

In Europe, Rissoides desmaresti, a squillid is found off England. There are several squillids off the temperate coast of Chile, a healthy stomatopod fauna off Southern Australia and Tasmania, etc. I would estimate that between 5 and 10% of stomatopod species are temperate. However, they do not get into the Artic or Anartic.

Roy

Daniel,

Thanks for the kind words. This would be a challenge. There are no smashers that live at these temperatures - except Hemisquilla and it gets way too large. Also the California species is not found at temperatures below about 58. That holds true for the other three species of Southern California stomatopods. There are several small lysiosquilloids and squilloids that burrow in soft sediments in waters around 55, but they are extremely difficult to get and most are from southern New Zealand and Australia. The most common is Heterosquilla (several species).

There are small deep water squillids that live at these temperatures, but they are rarely dredged alive.

Roy