Description of a new deep-water species of Alpheus Fabricius, 1798 from the Gulf of Mexico (Crustacea, Decapoda, Alpheidae)

A new deep-water species of the snapping shrimp genus Alpheus Fabricius, 1798 is described from two offshore localities in the northern Gulf of Mexico, south of Louisiana. Alpheus lentiginosus n. sp. belongs to the A. macrocheles (Hailstone, 1835) species group and is most closely related to the wes...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Zootaxa
Main Authors: ANKER, ARTHUR, NIZINSKI, MARTHA
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Mangolia Press 2011
Subjects:
Crustacea
Caridea
Alpheidae
Alpheus
Gulf of Mexico
western Atlantic
deep-water reefs
new species
Pacific
Christoffersen
Lophelia pertusa
Online Access:https://www.mapress.com/j/zt/article/view/zootaxa.2925.1.5
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.2925.1.5
Description
Summary:A new deep-water species of the snapping shrimp genus Alpheus Fabricius, 1798 is described from two offshore localities in the northern Gulf of Mexico, south of Louisiana. Alpheus lentiginosus n. sp. belongs to the A. macrocheles (Hailstone, 1835) species group and is most closely related to the western Atlantic A. pouang Christoffersen, 1979 and A. amblyonyx Chace 1972, the eastern Atlantic A. platydactylus Coutière, 1897 and A. macrocheles (Hailstone, 1835), and perhaps also to the eastern Pacific A. exilis Kim & Abele, 1988. The new species is associated with deep-water soft sediments adjacent to clusters of Lophelia pertusa (L.) (Scleractinia) or mud-covered rocks and cobble, at a depth range of 336–438 m, thus representing the deepest-known record of the Alpheidae in the Gulf of Mexico and the entire western Atlantic.

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