Range Description

This species is distributed throughout the Indo-west Pacific area including Natal, Mozambique, Madagascar, Laccadive Islands, Japan, Philippines, New Caledonia, Indonesia, the Solomon Islands, the South China Sea, and Queensland in Australia (Holthuis 1991; Poore 2004; Chan et al. 2009).

This species has many synonyms and as such has many type localities.
The type locality of this species is the 'Challenger' Station 191, south of New Guinea at a depth of 1463 m (lat. 5º41'S., long. 134º4'30' E.).
The type locality of Acanthacaris opipara is the southwest part of the Indian Ocean near Durban, at a depth of 830-850 m (29º57'6'- 29º52'5'S., 31º46'2'-31º52'5'E).
The type locality of Phoberus brevirostris is the East China Sea at a depth of 300-900 m (29º00'-30' N, 127º00'-30'E) (Holthuis 1991).