Squilloides leptosquilla

Squilloides leptosquilla (Brooks, 1886)

344–403 and 677–767 m

Kemp, 1913:48

Squilloides tenuispinis (Wood-Mason, 1891 in Wood-Mason and Alcock, 1891) [165 to 439 m]

439 m

Kemp, 1913:49

DISCUSSION .—Only 17 of about 400 species of Stomatopoda (see Reaka and Manning, 1986) are known to occur in depths exceeding 400 meters, but 13 of the 17 have been taken in depths of less than 400 meters; most of the 17 species are sublittoral species that frequent the outer shelf and upper slope. All four bathysquillids have been taken in depths of more than 400 meters, but even one of these, B. crassispinosa, occurs in shallower water, too.

At the family level, representatives of only 6 of the 13 recognized families have been taken in more than 400 meters, the shore-dwelling gonodactylids, protosquillids, and nannosquillids being conspicuously absent from slope habitats. Other than the bathysquillids, 2 of 25 eurysquillids (8%), 1 of 26 lysiosquillids (4%), 1 of 5 odontodactylids (20%), 1 of 20 pseudosquillids (5%), and 8 of 149 squillids (5%) have been found in more than 400 meters. The low numbers of species living in such deep waters is reflected also at the generic level. Whereas all three bathysquillid genera (100%) are represented in these deep habitats, only 1 of 5 eurysquillid genera (20%), 1 of 5 lysiosquillid genera (20%), 1 of 4 pseudosquillid genera (25%), and 4 of 27 squillid genera (15%) even occur there. As one species of Odontodactylus has been taken below 400 meters, 100% of odontodactylid genera are found there.

There appears to be no clear geographic pattern to the occurrence of stomatopods in outer slope habitats. Only 1 of 30 eastern Atlantic (3%), 5 of 77 western Atlantic (6%), 1 of 50 eastern Pacific (2%), and 11 of about 250 Indo-West Pacific (4%) species occur in such depths, reflecting the shallow-water characteristics of the group.