Synalpheus mcclendoni Coutière

Iii, Kenneth S Macdonald, Hultgren, Kristin & Duffy, Emmett, 2009, The sponge-dwelling snapping shrimps (Crustacea, Decapoda, Alpheidae, Synalpheus) of Discovery Bay, Jamaica, with descriptions of four new species, Zootaxa 2199, pp. 1-57 : 32-33

Synalpheus mcclendoni Coutière

Color plate 4A, B

Material examined. Jamaica: non-ovigerous individual, ovigerous female, ( VIMS 08JAM2702,03), Dairy Bull Reef, from canals of unidentified white tube sponge. Non-ovigerous individual, ( VIMS 08JAM4101), Columbus Park, Discovery Bay, from canals of Agelas cf. clathrodes . 5 non-ovigerous individual, 3 ovigerous females, ( VIMS 08JAM6101,07,22,24,28), Columbus Park, Discovery Bay, from canals of A. cf. clathrodes . Non-ovigerous individual, ( VIMS 08JAM8201), wall off Rio Bueno, from canals of A. cf. clathrodes . 6 nonovigerous individuals, ovigerous female, ( VIMS 08JAM8802,03), Columbus Park, Discovery Bay, from canals of Spheciospongia vesparium Lamarck. MaxCL ovigerous female: 3.09 mm. MaxCL non-ovigerous individual: 3.91 mm.

Color. The specimens of S. mcclendoni found in Jamaica differed greatly in color, with three main variations: 1) translucent body, distal portion of major chela brownish, with pale brown ovaries and embryos; 2) translucent body, distal portion of major chela orange, with olive embryos and ovaries; and 3), translucent body, distal portion of major chela bright orange/red, with white crescent following extensor margin of dactyl and another white crescent across palm near base of fingers, embryos and ovaries green/yellow (see Color plate 4A, which shows the last of these morphs).

Hosts and ecology. Synalpheus mcclendoni was found inhabiting several species of sponges in Jamaica: Agelas cf. clathrodes , Auletta cf. sycinularia , and Spheciospongia vesparium . It is typically found as heterosexual pairs, or in small groups with equal sex ratios.

Distribution. Florida, USA ( Coutière 1910); Bahamas ( Dardeau 1984); Cuba ( Martínez Iglesias and García Raso 1999); St. Lucia, Tobago Cays, Yucatan Mexico ( Chace 1972); Caribbean Panama ( Duffy 1992); Belize (as “ S. rathbunae A”, Macdonald et al. 2006; Ríos and Duffy 2007); Jamaica (this study).

Remarks. The individuals examined here are morphologically very similar, yet they may represent more than one species based on body color and pattern, and embryo/ovary color. While individuals from A. cf. sycinularia had a brownish major chela and pale embryos, color does not otherwise seem to correlate with host, with some shrimp from A. cf. clathrodes having orange chela and olive ovaries and embryos, while other individuals from the same host species displayed the bright orange major chela with white crescent and green/ yellow embryos. However, individual sponges never contained mixed populations; all S. mcclendoni in a particular sponge shared the same color pattern. The bright orange/white crescent color pattern on the major chela was found in individuals from both S. vesparium and A. cf. clathrodes .