Spongiocaris hexactinellicola Berggren, 1993

Olthof, Gabriël, Becking, Leontine E. & Fransen, Charles H. J. M., 2018, On a collection of deep-water shrimp (Crustacea, Decapoda) from the Dutch Caribbean, with the description of a new species of Pseudocoutierea, Zootaxa 4415 (3), pp. 533-548 : 534-535

Spongiocaris hexactinellicola Berggren, 1993

Spongiocaris hexactinellicola Berggren, 1993: 784 , figs. 1–5 [type locality 24°30’N 74°28’W, Tartar Bank, Cat Island, Bahamas, 606–610m, in the internal cavity of Euplectella jovis Schmidt, 1880 ].

Material examined. male (pocl. 4.9mm) non-ovigerous female (pocl. 5.3mm), RMNH.CRUS.D.57262: Stn. CAR. 08, Curaçao, 12°05.064'N, 068°53.900'W, depth 270m, 31.iii.2014, dive with Curasub submersible, from the sponge Heterotella pomponae Reiswig, 2000 , collected by Cessa Rauch.

Distribution. Spongiocaris hexactinellicola is known from the Bahamas ( Berggren 1993), from a depth of 606 to 610 meters. The current specimens extend that range southward to the Dutch Caribbean.

Host. The type specimens have been recorded from the hexactinellid sponge Euplectella jovis Schmidt, 1880 . The hexactinellid Heterotella pomponae Reiswig, 2000 constitutes a new host record.

Remarks. Spongiocaris hexactinellicola can be distinguished from its congeners S. cubanica Ortiz, Gómez & Lalana R., 1994 , S. goyi Ortiz, Lalana, Varela, 2007 , S. japonica (Kubo, 1942) , S. koehleri ( Caullery, 1896) , S. neocaledonensis Goy, 2015 , S. panglao Komai, De Grave & Saito, 2016 , S. semiteres Bruce & Baba, 1973 , S.

tuerkayi Komai, De Grave & Saito, 2016, S. yaldwyni Bruce & Baba, 1973 , by the following characters: 1) distally triangular rostrum not overreaching second segment of antennular peduncle, 2) rostrum with 4–7 dorsal teeth and one ventrolateral spine on both sides, without midventral teeth, 3) antennal tooth present, 4) hepatic tooth absent, 5) produced pterygostomial angle with pterygostomial tooth, 6) sixth pleomere unarmed on dorsal surface, 7) telson with median posterior marginal tooth and 6–9 acute teeth laterally, 8) scaphocerite subrectangular, not semicircular, with distal lamina overreaching distolateral tooth, and with series of acute teeth along lateral margin, 9) third maxilliped with epipod, meral segment with distolateral spine, 10) carpus and merus of third pereiopod unarmed, 11) ventral terminal spine on carpus of pereiopods IV and V present, 12) accessory teeth at base of inner main tooth of dactylus of pereiopod IV and V.

The current specimens show some variation in the amount of marginal and postmarginal spines on the anteroventral margin of the carapace: 2 or 3 marginal spines and 0 or 1 postmarginal spines were counted, deviating from the 4 or 5 marginal and 1 or 2 postmarginal spines described for type series. This difference can possibly be explained by the fact that the current specimens are smaller than the specimens described by Berggren (1993).