Pandalidae Haworth, 1825

Wicksten, Mary K., 2012, Decapod Crustacea of the Californian and Oregonian Zoogeographic Provinces 3371, Zootaxa 3371, pp. 1-307 : 99

Family Pandalidae Haworth, 1825

Pandalids, known as coon-striped shrimps, spot prawns, or Pacific pink shrimps, are among the largest carideans of California. Many species are common offshore on muddy bottoms, but Pandalus danae can occur at the lowest intertidal zone of bays and rocky coasts from Marin County, California northward. Species of Pandalus are well represented in the northeastern Pacific, but do not do not extend south of Magdalena Bay, Baja California ( Wicksten 1989b).

Pandalids have a long, slender, laterally compressed rostrum armed with teeth or spines. The first pereopod is slender and simple or microscopically chelate, which distinguishes them from the Thoridae , in which the first pereopod is robustly chelate. As in the Thoridae , the second pereopod is slender and has numerous carpal articles. The outer margin of the outer uropod has two distal spines. Many species are striped or spotted with red and white, or are colored uniformly scarlet. Many species of pandalids are protandrous hermaphrodites, in which the male is smaller and has subchelate third pereopods and a proportionally more slender rostrum than the female.

Pantomus affinis Chace, 1937 , usually found from southern Baja California to Peru, has been reported from southern California during El Niño events ( Montagne & Cadien 2001). It does not seem to be able to reproduce and establish a resident population in the area. It can be distinguished from all other pandalids in the area by having a hinge at the base of the rostrum. Three additional pandalids, Plesionika beebei Chace, 1937 , P. carinirostris Hendrickx, 1990 and P. trispinus Squires & Barragán, 1976 , were collected off the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Newport Bay, California during an extreme El Niño period in 1997–1999 but have not been collected since then ( Montagne & Cadien 2001).