Leptalpheus felderi, Anker & Vera Caripe & Lira, 2006

Anker, Arthur, Vera Caripe, Jonathan A. & Lira, Carlos, 2006, Description of a new species of commensal alpheid shrimp (Crustacea, Decapoda) from the southern Caribbean Sea, Zoosystema 28 (3), pp. 683-702 : 695

A new species of Alpheidae (Crustacea, Decapoda ) from the Caribbean Sea thalassinidean burrows with the aid of a suction pump, although at only two occasions, the shrimps were obtained together with the host, the fairly large (adult specimens 4-5 cm TL) upogebiid mudshrimp Upogebia omissa Gomes Corrêa, 1968 ( Fig. 6C ). On two occasions, the alpheids were collected as cohabiting pairs from the same mudshrimp burrow. The burrow openings were situated a few meters from the shore, at a depth of 0.5-1 m, in purely marine water. The substrate was fine sand, patchily either firmer or muddier, with small stones and shell debris, and a few meters away from mangrove trees and sea grass beds. The burrow openings did not have conspicuous mounds and were rather small (diameter from a few mm to 1 cm), contrasting with the much larger (diameter up to 3 cm) openings of the lined spacious tunnels of the large callianassid mudshrimp Glypturus acanthochirus Stimpson, 1866 (one captured specimen measured 15 cm TL) (see Dworschak & Ott 1993 for description of burrows of G. acanthochirus ). The only other crustacean collected from a burrow at this site was a single specimen of Alpheus cf. armillatus H. Milne Edwards,

1837. The immature specimen from Colombia was collected from a burrow of an undetermined host among mangrove roots.

The captured individuals of L. felderi n. sp. and other species of Leptalpheus are very agile and move (crawl or swim) very quickly (A. Anker pers. obs.). Williams (1984) reported that specimens of L. forceps “have been often taken at night in surface plankton inside inlets and in tidal currents in the sounds of North Carolina ”. Thus, it is likely that these commensal shrimps leave the burrow and forage outside during the night.

BIOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF HOST

Figures

FIG. 6. — Leptalpheus felderi n. sp.(A, B) and host Upogebia omissa Gomes Corrêa,1968 (C), habitus and colour patterns in life:A, ♂ paratype (IVIC 1128), dorsal view; B, ♀ paratype (MNHN-Na 13679), lateral view; C, U. omissa, lateral view.