Synalpheus brevifrons Chace

Iii, Kenneth S Macdonald, Hultgren, Kristin & Duffy, Emmett, 2009, The sponge-dwelling snapping shrimps (Crustacea, Decapoda, Alpheidae, Synalpheus) of Discovery Bay, Jamaica, with descriptions of four new species, Zootaxa 2199, pp. 1-57 : 13

Synalpheus brevifrons Chace

Figure 4

Material examined. Jamaica: Non-ovigerous individual ( VIMS 08JAM0706), fore-reef (near M 1 channel marker), Discovery Bay, from canals of Aiolochroia (Pseudoceratina) crassa . Non-ovigerous individual, ovigerous female ( VIMS 08JAM4501,02), fore-reef (near M 1 channel marker), Discovery Bay, host unknown. MaxCL ovigerous female: 3.05 mm. MaxCL non-ovigerous individual: 2.51 mm.

Color. Translucent, distal portion of major chela gold; embryos and ovaries bright green.

Hosts and ecology. Synalpheus brevifrons in Belize has typically been found inhabiting the canals of a soft, filmy, grey-brown sponge that lines the cavities of rocks and the canals of the sponge Aiolochroia (Pseudoceratina) crassa (see Color plate 7 A). It is possible that the Jamaican specimens had also been associated with this cryptic sponge species.

Distribution. Dominica ( Chace 1972); Belize (Macdonald et al. 2006; Ríos & Duffy 2007); Jamaica (this study).

Remarks. While specimens of S. brevifrons from Jamaica do not differ morphologically from those found in Belize, they do consistently differ from the female holotype figured by Chace (1972): the female specimens from Belize and Jamaica have hooks on the ventral margin of the third through fifth pleura and deeper adrostral sinuses on the frontal margin ( Fig. 4).