Athanopsis tarahomii Marin, Sheibani & Sari, 2014

(Fig. 14)

Athanopsis tarahomii Marin et al. 2014: 404 (part., not “Coloration” on p. 409), figs. 4–6 (not fig. 7).

Not Athanopsis tarahomii — Marin et al. 2014: 408, fig. 7, 409 (“Coloration”) [= Amphibetaeus jousseaumei (Coutière, 1896), see below].

Material examined. 1 male (cl 4.6 mm), 1 ovig. female (cl 4.7 mm), FLMNH UF 71425, Saudi Arabia, Thuwal, near KAUST King Abdullah Monument, 22°20’26.2”N / 39°05’15.1”E, shallow subtidal sandflat with seagrass and rubble patches, depth 0.5–1.5 m, suction pump, in echiuran burrow, leg. A. Anker, 20.01.2023 [fcn AA-22-493] .

Description. See Marin et al. (2014) for original description and illustrations; colour photographs of the Red Sea specimens are provided in Fig. 14.

Colour in life. Background translucent whitish; carapace with small red patch between eyes, numerous white, star-shaped chromatophores covering most of dorsal surface, and broad, red patch on each flank, at about middle of carapace; most of pleon densely covered with white chromatophores, ventral pleura of third pleonite and most of fourth pleonite deep red; chelipeds and remaining appendages hyaline whitish; eggs yolky yellow (Fig. 14). See also remarks below.

Type locality. Qeshm Island, Iran.

Distribution. Currently known only from the type locality in Iran (Marin et al. 2014) and the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia (present study).

Ecology. The two Saudi Arabian specimens were extracted from the burrow of a large echiuran (probably Ochetostoma sp.) on a shallow sandflat with large patches of seagrass and some fragmented rubble, at a depth of about 1 m. The Iranian type specimens were also found in association with echiurans, in a “cobble/rocky area under large boulder” (Marin et al. 2014).

Remarks. Athanopsis tarahomii was hitherto known only from two type specimens from Qeshm Island, Iran, in the Strait of Hormuz. The present Saudi Arabian material of A. tarahomii significantly extends its previously known range from the Arabian-Persian Gulf to the central Red Sea. The two Red Sea specimens agree well with the type material, including the very characteristic descendant and distally notched rostrum, although not as pronounced as in the type specimens (Marin et al. 2014: fig. 4d, e).

The colour pattern of A. tarahomii is herein illustrated for the first time (Fig. 14) and is diagnostic for this species, despite possessing some similarities with the colour patterns of A. brevirostris and A. saurus (cf. Figs. 8, 9). The description of the colour pattern of A. tarahomii and the accompanying photograph in Marin et al. (2014: fig. 7) are erroneous and actually refer to Amphibetaeus jousseaumei (Coutière, 1896), which was reported in the same study. The present author is in the possession of a colour photograph showing two individuals (presumably type specimens) of the real A. tarahomii from Qeshm Island [sent by R. Sheibani, the second author in Marin et al. (2014) well before the publication of their study), which confirms that the colour patterns of the Iranian and Saudi Arabian specimens are almost identical. Another error in Marin et al. (2014) is the invalid designation of a neotype for A. jousseaumei (SMF-43232, deposited in the Senckenberg Naturmuseum, Frankfurt) as a lectotype exists for this species (see Anker & Jeng 2006).