Leptochelia forresti (Stebbing 1896)

(Fig. 4 H–I)

Examined material. TA: 288 individuals. CNCR 34802. Tr-Loc: M50- Chabihau, Yucatan, Mexico 21°22’4.329’’N 89°4’13.659’’W, 22 ♀, four ♀ m, nine ♂, five juv, 20 May 2005, 27 November 2005, 12 March 2006, coll. AV, SP ; Tr-Loc: M51- Santa Clara, Yucatan, Mexico 21°23’41.709’’N 88°53’21.159’’W, 92 ♀, five ♀ o, 73 ♀ m, 45 ♂, one juv, one man., 20 May 2005, 27 November 2005, 12 March 2006, coll. AV, SP ; Tr-Loc: M52- Dzilam, Yu- catan, Mexico 21°25’57.859’’N 88°44’7.216’’W, one ♀, 15 May 2005, 13 November 2005, 13 March 2006, coll. AV, SP ; Tr-Loc: M54- Dzilam, Yucatan, Mexico 21°32’35.659’’N 88°29’57.616’’W, one ♀, one ♀ m, one ♂, 15 May 2005, 13 November 2005, 13 March 2006, coll. AV, SP ; Tr-Loc: M55- Dzilam, Yucatan, Mexico 21°34’3.9’’N 88°22’39.608’’W, 13♀, ten ♀ m, two ♂, one juv, 15 May 2005, 13 November 2005, 13 March 2006, coll. AV, SP ; Tr-Loc: M56- San Felipe, Yucatan, Mexico 21°34’32.739’’N 88°14’24.248’’W, one ♂, 16 May 2005, 12 November 2005, 18 March 2006, coll. AV, SP; collected at depths of 0.2–2.9 m, in coarse sand, medium sand, fine sand, and very fine sand, with Caulerpa, H. wrightii, Syringodium, and T. testudinum

.

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

Geographical distribution. GoM: south Florida, Tuxpan-Lobos Protected Natural Area, Veracruz Reef System National Park, Bajos de Sisal Reef System; Caribbean Sea: Puerto Morelos Reef National Park and coast of Quintana Roo, southeast of Cuba, Antigua, Puerto Vargas and Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, Gairaca Bay, Colombia; Atlantic Ocean: north coast of Brazil.

Recognition characters. Body with small dark spots in both sexes. Female: uropodal endopod with six articles, exopod uniarticulate and shorter than the first article of endopod. Male: antennule as long as the length of the body; cheliped slender and longer than the total length of the body, fixed finger with a rounded process on distal inner margin; uropodal endopod with six articles.

Remarks. It inhabits between 0 and 200 m perpendicular to the shoreline, associated with mangrove roots, sponges ( A. compressa, A. crassa, A. fistularis, C. nucula, I. birotulata, I. felix, I. strobilina), seagrasses ( T. testudinum), algae ( A. fragilissima, B. tenella, C. cervicornis, C. dasyphylla, D. dichotoma, D. obtusata, Rhipocephalus, U. lactuca), cnidarians ( Eunicea flexuosa Lamouroux), coral rubble, coral reefs, wood, soft bottoms and as part of the encrusting barnacles, at depths 5 to 50 m.

References. Heard et al. (2004); Suárez-Morales et al. (2004), Winfield et al. (2007a, 2007b); Heard & Anderson (2009);

Heard et al. (2009); Winfield et al. (2010); Winfield et al. (2013); Guţu (2016); García-Madrigal et al. (2005); Jarquín-

González et al. (2015); Winfield et al. (2017), Cházaro-Olvera et al. (2018).