Axianassa australis Rodrigues, 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 : 698-699

The taxonomic identity of L. petronii , described from Ilha de Itamaracá, Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil (Ramos-Porto & Souza 1994), is problematic. The original description of this species was published as an abstract in a publication with very limited distribution (Abstracts of the XXth Brazilian Congress of Zoology), without illustrations and proper diagnosis, and was not republished in a more complete form elsewhere. This description is clearly not in accordance with the standards of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature ( ICZN 1999). According to the very short morphological notes provided by Ramos-Porto & Souza, L. petronii matches L. axianassae , described and illustrated properly by Dworschak & Coelho (1999). The type locality of L. axianassae is São Sebastião, São Paulo, Brazil, situated approximately 2000 km south of the type locality of L. petronii . The recollections at the type locality of L. petronii confirmed that L. petronii is the same species as L. axianassae (D. Felder pers. comm.). Therefore, the inadequate description of L. petronii should be invalidated, and L. axianassae should take the nominal priority over L. petronii , despite the fact that the latter was described five years earlier. Leptalpheus axianassae appears to be distributed throughout Brazil, Florida, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea (D. Felder pers. comm.), and is associated with the same host, the laomediid mudshrimp Axianassa australis Rodrigues

A new species of Alpheidae (Crustacea, Decapoda ) from the Caribbean Sea

& Shimizu, 1992 ( Rodrigues & Shimizu 1992; Dworschak & Rodrigues 1997).

FENNERALPHEUS

Fenneralpheus chacei Felder & Manning, 1986 from Florida is closely related to Leptalpheus , as indicated by numerous features on the carapace, antennules, antennae, mouthparts, chelipeds, third to fifth pereiopods and uropods ( Felder & Manning 1986; Anker 2001). Fenneralpheus can be distinguished from Leptalpheus by the major cheliped having a stouter merus and longer fingers; the cutting edges of the major chela fingers armed with particular teeth, described as “rounded, cuspate, obliquely oriented ridges, intermeshing near mid-length of fingers” ( Felder & Manning 1986; Anker 2001); the pterygostomial angle anteriorly produced (vs. rounded in Leptalpheus ); the scaphocerite of the antenna with reduced distolateral tooth; and the third maxilliped with penultimate segment more elongated, almost as long as antepenultimate segment, the latter divided in two sub-segments by a suture. Felder & Manning (1986) listed other differences, most of which however, e.g., the more pronounced ventral lip on the carapace and much larger size, are clearly not of generic importance.

Remarkably, Fenneralpheus shares some features with the L. forceps group ( Leptalpheus s.s.), e.g., the stylocerite tightly appressed and not reaching the distal margin of the first segment of the antenular peduncle; the carpus of the major cheliped bearing distally two rounded processes (feature shared with at least two undescribed species and L. felderi n. sp.); and the cutting edges of the major chela armed with (somewhat modified) teeth. Although the host of F. chacei remains unknown, Felder & Manning (1986) assumed that this species may be associated with burrows of the lysiosquillid stomatopod Lysiosquilla scabricauda (Lamarck, 1818) , and not with thalassinideans, as presumably all Leptalpheus species (see Table 1).

The present taxonomic situation of the generic complex Leptalpheus - Fenneralpheus , with numerous species remaining to be described (Table 1), does not allow hypotheses on the intra-generic relationships among the species of Leptalpheus ,