Naushonia lactoalbida Berggren, 1992

Komai, Tomoyuki & Anker, Arthur, 2015, Additional records of the laomediid mud-shrimp genus Naushonia Kingsley, 1897 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Gebiidea), with a revised identification key, Zootaxa 3974 (3), pp. 341-360 : 346-348

Naushonia lactoalbida Berggren, 1992

Fig. 2

Naushonia lactoalbida Berggren 1992: 514 (type locality: Inhaca Island, Mozambique), 522 (key), figs. 1–6.— Alvarez et al. 2000: 198 (key).— Komai 2004: 22, figs. 1B, 5, 6 (Iriomote Island, Ryukyu Islands, Japan).— Anker et al. 2015: 333 , fig. 24B (Lombok, Indonesia).

Material examined. Japan: 1 female (pocl 9.3 mm), Ryukyu Islands, Okinawa Island, Nago, Kyoda, scuba diving, 5 m, coral rubble, coll. N. Shirakawa, 10 November 2012, CBM-ZC 12595. Papua New Guinea: 1 ovigerous female (pocl 5.3 mm), Madang lagoon, scuba diving, subtidal flat with coral rubble, 3–5 m, on silt sand under coral rocks, coll. A. Anker, 16 November 2012 [PZD-653], MNHN-IU-2013-0627.

Description. See Berggren (1992) and Komai (2004).

Colouration in life. Body and appendages whitish with some pale yellow tinge; orange ovary partly visible through semitransparent integument ( Fig. 2 A).

Distribution. Indo-West Pacific: Mozambique (Inhaca Island), Japan (Ryukyu Islands), Indonesia (Lombok) ( Berggren 1992; Komai 2004; Anker et al. 2015), Papua New Guinea (Madang) (present study).

Habitat. Intertidal and shallow subtidal to about 5 m; on sand under coral rubble.

Remarks. Naushonia lactoalbida was originally described based on three specimens, including female holotype, male allotype and female paratype, all collected on tidal flats of Inhaca Island, Mozambique ( Berggren 1992). Subsequently, Komai (2004) reported a single female specimen referable to this species, collected off the coast of Iriomote Island, Ryukyu Islands, Japan, thereby considerably extending its geographic range. More recently, Anker et al. (2015) reported two specimens of N. lactoalbida from shallow sea grass flats in western Lombok, Indonesia. The ovigerous female from Madang extends the geographic range of this species further eastward, to the eastern coast of New Guinea, whereas the female from Okinawa confirms its presence in southern Japan.

Among the species characterized by the non-carinate pleomeres and rounded pleura, N. lactoalbida is readily recognizable by the presence of spines on the gastric carinae of the carapace and also by the presence of several small spines on the anterolateral areas of the carapace ( Berggren 1992; Komai 2004). The specimen from Okinawa differs from the previous descriptions of N. lactoalbida (cf. Berggren 1992; Komai 2004) in possessing several small spines or tubercles on the postcervical area of the carapace and having noticeably stronger teeth on the middorsal carina of the carapace ( Fig. 2 B). These two differences can also be seen in one of the specimens from Lombok illustrated by Anker et al. (2015), but are much less marked in the specimen from Madang ( Fig. 2 A). We tentatively consider these differences as a size-related intraspecific variation, because both the Okinawa and Lombok specimens are larger than the specimens reported by Berggren (1992) and Komai (2004), or the Madang specimen. In addition, there appear to be some differences in the shape of the rostrum, which is broader and shorter in the Madang specimen ( Fig. 2 A) compared to that of the Japanese specimens ( Fig. 2 B; see also Komai 2004).

Neither Berggren (1992) nor Komai (2004) mentioned the presence of an arthrobranch at the base of the first maxilliped in N. lactoalbida . Our examination of the Okinawa specimen confirmed the presence of a single arthrobranch at the first maxilliped in N. lactoalbida , as in the other four species reported in this study ( Table 1).

Figures

FIGURE 2. Naushonia lactoalbida Berggren, 1992. A, female (pocl 5.3 mm) from Madang, Papua New Guinea, MNHN-IU- 2013 - 0627, living individual, dorsal view; B, female (pocl 9.3 mm) from Okinawa, Japan, CBM-ZC 12595, carapace, dorsal view. Scale bar for B: 2 mm.