Mirocaris, VERESHCHAKA, 1996

Martin, Joel W. & Haney, Todd A., 2005, Decapod crustaceans from hydrothermal vents and cold seeps: a review through 2005, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 145 (4), pp. 445-522 : 465

GENUS MIROCARIS VERESHCHAKA, 1996

The genus Mirocaris , originally established by Vereshchaka (1996b) to accommodate M. keldyshi , was rediagnosed by Komai & Segonzac (2003). At the same time, those authors synonymized M. keldyshii with M. (formerly Chorocaris ) fortunata described by Martin & Christiansen (1995), such that the genus currently contains one species. We are aware of a second species: the shrimp tentatively identified as Chorocaris sp. by Van Dover et al. (2001) from the Indian Ocean vents is apparently a species of Mirocaris (T. Komai, pers. comm.), which we have listed in the tables as Mirocaris sp. A .

Mirocaris sp. A . Van Dover et al. (2001) reported Chorocaris sp. from Indian Ocean hydrothermal vents (Kairei & Edmonds sites). Although we cannot rule out the possibility of a species of Chorocaris at those sites, the most common ‘ Chorocaris -like’ shrimp collected from those sites is actually an undescribed species of Mirocaris that will soon be described (Komai et al., in press). It is most probable that this is the same species referred to by Van Dover et al. (2001) as Chorocaris sp. Material of the new species of Mirocaris is currently in the JAMSTEC collections and at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, on loan to J. Martin from T. Shank. Material upon which the description is being based will be deposited at the National Science Museum, Tokyo, and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.