Hargeria rapax Harger, 1879

(Fig. 4 F–G)

Examined material. TA: 370 individuals. CNCR 34803. Tr-Loc: M43- Celestun, Yucatan, Mexico 21°3’53.319’’N 90°14’57.728’’W, two ♂, 7 May 2005, 26 November 2005, 11 March 2006, coll. AV, SP ; Tr-Loc: M51- Santa Clara, Yucatan, Mexico 21°23’41.709’’N 88°53’21.159’’W, 270 ♀, six ♀ o, 39 ♀ m, 15 ♂, 24 juv, 14 man., 20 May 2005, 27 November 2005, 12 March 2006, coll. AV, SP; collected at depths of 0.8–1.7 m, in coarse sand, medium sand, and fine sand, with Caulerpa, Syringodium, and T. testudinum

.

Local distribution. (Table 1, Fig. 2).

Geographical distribution. Atlantic Ocean: northeastern United States, from Massachusetts to Florida; entire GoM; Caribbean Sea: Caiman Islands, Puerto Morelos Reef National Park and the coast of Quintana Roo.

Recognition characters. Female: antennule with three articles; three flat spines on the maxilliped endite; uropodal exopod with one article smaller than the first article of endopod. Male: cheliped slender with teeth on proximal inner margin in dactylus and fixed finger; post-anal spatulate process present. Uropodal endopod with five articles in both sexes.

Remarks. It is a euryhaline species, with a preference for submerged aquatic vegetation ( H. wrightii, Ruppia maritima Linnaeus, Syringodium filiforme Kützing and T. testudinum), It can also be associated with algae ( A. fragilissima, Cladophora Kützing, D. obtusata), sponges ( A. fistularis, I. felix, I. strobilina) in soft bottoms, mangroves, marshes, encrusting communities, coral rubble, submerged wood, at depths 0 to 20 m. It feeds on diatoms and fine organic particles.

References. Harger (1879); Lang (1973); Kneib (1992); Heard et al. (2004); Suárez-Morales et al. (2004); García-Madrigal et al. (2005); Masterson (2008); Heard & Anderson (2009); Winfield et al. (2013); Jarquín-González et al. (2015); Monroy-Velázquez et al. (2017); Cházaro-Olvera et al. (2018); Jarquín-González & Carrera-Parra (2019).