Alpheus packardii Kingsley, 1880 sensu

Anker, Arthur, Tavares, Marcos & Mendonça, Joel B., 2016, Alpheid shrimps (Decapoda: Caridea) of the Trindade & Martin Vaz Archipelago, off Brazil, with new records, description of a new species of Synalpheus and remarks on zoogeographical patterns in the oceanic islands of the tropical southern Atlantic, Zootaxa 4138 (1), pp. 1-58 : 22

Alpheus packardii Kingsley, 1880 sensu lato

( Fig. 6 )

Alpheus packardii Kingsley 1880: 417 ; Kingsley 1883: 118, pl. 2, fig. 2; Zimmer 1913: 409, figs. A2–G2.

Crangon packardii — Hay & Shore 1918: 385, pl. 26, fig. 4.

Alpheus cf. packardii — Souza et al. 2011: 47; Santos et al. 2012: 151, fig. 3H; Soledade & Almeida 2013: 103, fig. 6A.

Alpheus normanni — Chace 1972: 68; Christoffersen 1979: 322 (partim); McClure 2005: 145 (partim, not fig. 17, pl. 3, fig. A); Alves et al. 2008: 49 [not A. normanni Kingsley, 1878 ].

Alpheus bermudensis Spence Bate 1888: 547 , pl. 98, fig. 3.

Alpheus beanii Verrill, 1922: 81 , fig. 7, pl. 22, fig. 5, pl. 32, fig. 1a–u.

[a more complete synonymy will be provided in the revision of the Alpheus normanni species complex (Anker & Santos, in prep.)]

Material examined. Brazil: 7 (4 ovig.) females, MZUSP 30275, Trindade Island, sta. MD55, Enseada dos Portugueses, depth: 10 m, vacuum device, coll. M. Tavares et al., 22.v.1987; 1 juvenile, MZUSP 31075, Trindade Island, Enseada dos Portugueses, Praia da Calheta, 20°30’29.5”S – 29°18’37.0”W, depth unknown, coll. L. Simone et al., 23.vii.2011; 1 ovig. female, MZUSP 33278, Trindade Island, Enseada dos Portugueses, Farol, 20°29’52.3”S – 29°19’15.6”W, depth: 13.3 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 17.iv.2014; 1 male, MZUSP 33289, Trindade Island, Enseada dos Portugueses, Farol, 20°29’52.3”S – 29°19’15.6”W, depth: 13.2 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 08.v.2014; 1 female, MZUSP 33379, Trindade Island, Ponta Norte, 20°29’18.7”S – 29°20’18.3”W, depth: 11.5 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 01.iv.2014; 1 ovig. female, MZUSP 33262, Trindade Island, Ilha da Racha, 20°30’26.5”S – 29°20’48.0”W, depth: 25.1 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 12.xi.2014. Size of largest male: cl 4.0 mm ( MZUSP 33289); largest female: cl 6.5 mm ( MZUSP 33278).

Description. See Kingsley (1880) for original description (with single diagrammatic figure published in Kingsley 1883); Zimmer (1913) provided a more detailed diagnosis with illustrations; Santos et al. (2012) and Soledade & Almeida (2013) published colour photographs of the Brazilian material (identified as A. cf. packardii ) (see also Fig. 6 ).

Distribution. Western Atlantic (species complex, see below): North Carolina to Florida; Gulf of Mexico; throughout Caribbean Sea; Bermuda; Brazil: Amapá to Espírito Santo, Fernando de Noronha, Atol das Rocas , Trindade Island ( Chace 1972; Christoffersen 1979; Soledade & Almeida 2013 and references therein; present study).

Ecology. Various hard and soft bottom habitats, e.g., rocky and mixed rock-sand shores, coral reefs and associated rubble flats, seagrass beds and coralline algae; typically under rocks, among seagrass roots, in crevices of coral rubble etc.; intertidal to at least 80 m (species complex, see below).

Remarks. Alpheus packardii and A. normanni Kingsley, 1878 are part of the transisthmian A. normanni — A. packardii species complex, which is currently being revised (Anker & Santos, in study). The taxonomic identity of the western Atlantic material identified as A. normanni , A. packardii , A. bermudensis Spence Bate, 1888 , A. beanii Verrill, 1922 , and A. longichaelis Carvacho, 1979 will need to be carefully re-assessed. The Brazilian material was variously identified as A. normanni , A. packardii or A. beanii (see Soledade & Almeida 2013 for details) and it is quite possible that it refers to more than one species. The species recorded from Trindade Island appears to be morphologically close to A. beanii , which was treated as a junior synonym of A. normanni by Christoffersen (1979) and is now in the synonymy of A. packardii ( De Grave & Fransen 2011) .

Figures

FIGURE 6. Alpheus packardii Kingsley, 1880 sensu lato, ovigerous female from Enseada dos Portugueses, Trindade Island, Brazil (MZUSP 33278): A — dorsal view; B — lateral view. Photographs by J. B. Mendonça.