Early zoeal stages of two snapping shrimps Alpheus digitalis De Haan, 1850 and Alpheus japonicus Miers, 1879 are described and illustrated in detail for the first time based on the laboratory-reared materials. The first zoeas of Alpheus are more related to those of Vexillipar than to Athanas, Automate, and Synalpheus by having rostrum absent, the tip of the endopod of the antenna with a long plumose seta as well as a spine, the endopod of the maxilla with a basal and two terminal setae, the exopod of the maxilla shorter than the endopod, and the endopod of the second maxilliped with a seta on the proximal segment. A list of larval descriptions and described stages of the Alpheidae reported from Indo-West Pacific waters are included.