Iraqi Shrimp
Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 9:22 am
The invasion of Macrobrachium nipponense (De Haan, 1849) (Caridea: Palaemonidae) into the Southern Iraqi Marshes, a 2006 article, may be accessed here as a PDF document.
The introduction vector for this East Asian species (also accidentally introduced to the Caspian Sea, along with power plants in Belarus, Moldova, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan) was hypothesized to have been "unintentional escapes from Iranian aquaculture."
Though no Macrobrachium are native to Iraq, at least two other species of shrimp - Caridina babaulti basrensis and Atyaephyra desmaresti mesopotamica - have been reported from the nation's freshwaters. Moreover, a hymenosomatid crab, Elamenopsis kempi, is also present.
The introduction vector for this East Asian species (also accidentally introduced to the Caspian Sea, along with power plants in Belarus, Moldova, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan) was hypothesized to have been "unintentional escapes from Iranian aquaculture."
Though no Macrobrachium are native to Iraq, at least two other species of shrimp - Caridina babaulti basrensis and Atyaephyra desmaresti mesopotamica - have been reported from the nation's freshwaters. Moreover, a hymenosomatid crab, Elamenopsis kempi, is also present.