Study of Distribution and Morphological Characters of Alpheus glaber and Alpheus estuarensis Larva Species (Caridea: Alpheidae) in the Mouth of Bahmanshir and Arvand Rivers, (North Persian Gulf)

The study describes the temporal and spatial distribution of larval stages of two species of Alpheidae from the Bahmanshir and Arvand estuaries in north of the Persian Gulf. Planktonic larvae were collected using 0.45 m diameter plankton net with 300μm mesh size monthly horizontal towing from February 2011 to October 2012. The larval stages illustrated and described in detail for Alpheus glaber and Alpheus estuarensis. The species of larval density was calculated at different stations and months. The most abundant species A. glaber with 110.1 Ind larvae /m in May and A. estuarensis 93.1 Ind larvae /m were calculated in June. Two new species of Alpheus larvae were first reports of the Iranian coastal water. Also, positive relationship between temperature and salinity with frequency of A. glaber and A. estuarensis were found significantly using spearman correlation coefficients (P< 0.05).