Arete indicus Coutière, 1903

Al-Kandari, Manal, Anker, Arthur, Hussain, Sumaiah, Al-Yassen, Sharifa, Sattari, Zainab & Grave, Sammy De, 2020, New records of decapod crustaceans from Kuwait (Malacostraca: Decapoda), Zootaxa 4803 (2), pp. 251-280 : 257

Arete indicus Coutière, 1903

Arete dorsalis var. Indicus Coutière, 1903: 84 , figs. 25–29 (partim, not fig. 30).

Arete indicus . — Coutière 1905: 863, figs. 134, 135; Nobili 1906a: 24; Balss 1915: 21; De Grave 2007: 147; De Grave & Ashelby 2011: 3; Naderloo & Türkay 2012: 11 ; Dabbagh et al. 2019: 248.

Athanas indicus . — Banner & Banner 1960: 149; (?) Miya & Miyake 1968: 151, figs. 9, 10 A–C, E–G, I. 11 A, B, D. 12 A–D, F–H (part.?); (?) Banner & Banner 1973b: 327, fig. 11; (?) Sastry 1981: 22, fig. 2; Titgen 1982: 79; Gherardi 1991: 111, fig. 2; George 2012: 285.

Material examined. Kuwait: 1 male, KISR, Al-Khiran, rocky substrate, leg. M. Al-Kandari et al., 05.i.2015 .

General distribution. Widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific, with records from the Red Sea (e.g. Israel), Arabian Gulf ( Kuwait, UAE, Iran), East and South Africa, Madagascar, Mascarenes, Seychelles, Maldives, India ( Lakshadweep = Laccadives, Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Indonesia, Philippines, China, Japan, Palau, Mariana Islands, Papua New Guinea, Australia and Tonga (e.g., Coutière 1905; Banner & Banner 1973b; Chace 1988; Naderloo & Türkay 2012; Dabbagh et al. 2019); exact range uncertain due to confusion with closely related taxa.

Ecology. Lower intertidal and shallow subtidal, especially on more exposed coral reef flats and rocky outcrops; symbiont of the sea urchin Echinometra mathaei (Blainville) and possibly other species of Echinometra ( Gherardi 1991; Gherardi & Calloni 1993; Dabbagh et al. 2019); records of A. indicus from other genera of sea urchins (e.g. Miya & Miyake 1968; Ganapati & Sastry 1972; Banner & Banner 1973b) are doubtful or would at least require confirmation.

Remarks. In the Arabian Gulf, A. indicus appears to be associated exclusively with the rock-boring sea urchin Echinometra mathaei , which is common on reefs and reef flats around the southern islands, as well as some rocky shores in southern Kuwait. Despite the abundance of potential urchin hosts, A. indicus appears to be very rare in Kuwait, the present specimen being the first known record for the country. The species is more common on the Iranian side of the Arabian Gulf, as well as in the UAE ( De Grave 2007; Naderloo & Türkay 2012).

Coutière (1903) noted and illustrated an unusual morphological feature of A. indicus , which appears to be unique within the Alpheidae and is therefore diagnostic of the species. The distolateral angle of the uropodal exopod, proximal to the distolateral spiniform seta, is strongly curved ventrally ( Coutière 1903: fig. 29). Since this feature is clearly seen in the Kuwaiti specimen, no doubts remain as to its identity.