Alpheus malleodigitus ( Bate, 1888 )

Dehghani, Amir, Sari, Alireza & Naderloo, Reza, 2019, Annotated checklist of the snapping shrimps of the genus Alpheus Fabricius, 1798 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Alpheidae) from the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, Iran, Zootaxa 4544 (4), pp. 479-504 : 488

Alpheus malleodigitus ( Bate, 1888)

( Fig. 5 A–B)

Betaeus malleodigitus Bate, 1888: 565 .

Alpheus malleodigitus — De Man, 1902: 866;

Alpheus phyrginus Coutiere, 1905a: 886 , fig. 25.

Alpheus persicus Nobili, 1906: 33 .

Alpheus malleodigitus — Banner and Banner, 1982: 92.

Material examined. PG: 5 males, 6 ovig. females ( ZUTC 6677 ), Abu-Musa I., on dead coral, Coll. R. Naderloo and A. Dehghani, 10 Oct. 2017 ; 1 male, 1 ovine. female ( SMF 51384), Abu-Musa I., on dead coral, Coll. R. Naderloo & A. Dehghani, 10 Oct. 2017 ; GO: 2 males, 2 ovig. females ( ZUTC 6678 ), Chabahar Bay , Tis, on dead coral, Coll. A. Dehghani, 2 Oct. 2016 .

Distribution. Indo-West Pacific: from South Africa and Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman to Japan, Australia.

Regional records. PG: UAE ( Nobili, 1905b & 1906 as Alpheus persicus ), Iran (present study); GO: Iran (present study).

Habitat. The material from Australia and Singapore are associated to the hard corals Pocillopora and Seriatopora ( Banner & Banner, 1982; Anker & De Grave, 2016).

Remarks. Nobili (1906) described a new species from the PG, namely A. persicus . However, Banner & Banner (1966) re-examined this material and synonymized it with A. malleodigitus . The species is similar in appearance to A. microstylus but can be recognized using two characters: 1) tooth of the scaphocerite reaching the distal margin of second antennular segment while in A. microstylus the tooth reaches near the end of third segment; 2) dactylus of major chela forms a single to double-headed hammer (see Banner & Banner, 1982). In the PG and GO, A. malleodigitus were found on Acropora sp. branches.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Alpheus malleodigitus (Bate, 1888), A. Male (CL. 6.2 mm); B. Female (CL. 6.1 mm), Abu-Musa Island. Alpheus microstylus (Bate, 1888), C. Female (CL. 6 mm), Abu-Musa Island. Alpheus mohammadpouri Dehghani et al. (2018), D. Male (CL. 8.9 mm); E. Female (CL. 9.2 mm), Abu-Musa Island. Alpheus pachychirus Stimpson, 1860, F. Male (CL. 5.5 mm), Abu- Musa Island.