Leptochela

{{Short description|Genus of crustaceans}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| image = Leptochela chacei (MNHN-IU-2014-11193) 003.jpeg

| image_caption = Leptochela chacei

| taxon = Leptochela

| authority = Stimpson, 1860 {{cite web | url = http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=107050 | title = Leptochela Stimpson, 1860 | access-date = 19 February 2016 | publisher = World Register of Marine Species | author = Charles Fransen | year = 2011}}

| type_species = Leptochela gracilis

| type_species_authority = Stimpson, 1860

}}

Leptochela is a genus of small, shallow-water shrimp from the family Pasiphaeidae.{{Cite journal |last=Vereshchaka |first=A. |last2=Lunina |first2=A. |last3=Kulagin |first3=D. |last4=Olesen |first4=J. |last5=Corbari |first5=L. |date=December 12, 2024 |title=Revision of the Global Fauna of Leptochela Stimpson, 1860 (Crustacea: Decapoda), Highlighting Phylogenetic Clades and a New Species |url=https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/16/12/760 |journal=Diversity |volume=16 |issue=12 |pages=760 |via=MDPI}} They are found in the Indo-Pacific region and the western Atlantic with an isolated species in Hawaii, they are absent from the eastern Atlantic Ocean and were absent from the eastern Pacific but specimens of a species widespread in the western Atlantic were collected from waters to the south of the tip of Baja California. Two species, Leptochela aculeocaudata and Leptochela pugnax have invaded the eastern Mediterranean from the Red Sea through the Suez Canal and are thus classified as Lessepsian migrants.{{cite journal | author = Fenner A. Chace Jr. | year = 1976 | title = Shrimps of the pasiphaeid genus Leptochela with descriptions of three new species (Crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea) | url = http://www.vliz.be/imisdocs/publications/236122.pdf | journal = Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology | volume = 222}}