Leptalpheus axianassae Dworschak & Coelho, 1999

Caripe, Jonathan Vera, Pereda, Luisana & Anker, Arthur, 2021, A new species and two new records of symbiotic infaunal alpheid shrimps from the genera Leptalpheus Williams, 1965 and Fenneralpheus Felder & Manning 1986 (Decapoda: Caridea) from Venezuela, Zootaxa 5061 (1), pp. 177-184 : 182-183

Leptalpheus axianassae Dworschak & Coelho, 1999

Leptalpheus axianassae Dworschak & Coelho 1999: 477 , figs. 1–30; Pachelle et al. 2016: 10 , fig. 6 A, B.

Material examined. 1 male (cl 3.7 mm), GIC-917, Venezuela, Anzoátegui, Mochima National Park, Chimana del Sur Island , 10°16’12.3871”N – 64°38’13.4962”W, shallow subtidal flat near seagrass beds and mangroves, depth 1.5 m, in burrow, suction pump, leg. J. Vera-Caripe, 26 January 2011 .

Distribution. Western Atlantic: Brazil (São Paulo, Ceará), USA (Florida), Venezuela (Anzoátegui) ( Dworschak & Coelho 1999; Felder et al. 2003; Pachelle et al. 2016; present study).

Ecology. The single Venezuelan specimen of L. axianassae was collected from a burrow of Axianassa australis Rodrigues & Shimizu, 1992 (Laomediidae) , dug in a sandy-muddy substrate, at a depth of about 1.5 m, close to seagrass beds and mangroves.

Remarks. Among the presently known western Atlantic species of Leptalpheus , L. axianassae appears to be morphologically closest to L. lirai sp. nov. (see above). However, the sister species of L. axianassae is undoubtedly the morphologically almost indistinguishable eastern Pacific L. canterakintzi ( Anker & Lazarus 2015) . The species is recorded from Venezuela for the first time, increasing the total number of species of Leptalpheus known from this country to five ( Anker et al. 2006; Anker & Vera-Caripe 2016).