Alpheus peasei ( Armstrong, 1940 )

Anker, Arthur, Tavares, Marcos & Mendonça, Joel B., 2016, Alpheid shrimps (Decapoda: Caridea) of the Trindade & Martin Vaz Archipelago, off Brazil, with new records, description of a new species of Synalpheus and remarks on zoogeographical patterns in the oceanic islands of the tropical southern Atlantic, Zootaxa 4138 (1), pp. 1-58 : 24-27

Alpheus peasei ( Armstrong, 1940)

( Figs. 7 , 8 )

Crangon peasei Armstrong 1940: 1 .

Alpheus peasei — Hendrix 1971: 128, pls. 18, 19; Chace 1972: 69; Ray 1974: 120, figs. 100–104; Abele & Kim 1986: 197, 210, 211, figs. a–c; McClure 2005: 150, fig. 20; Santos et al. 2012: 152, fig. 3J; Soledade & Almeida 2013: 104, fig. 6C; Cunha et al. 2015: 48, fig. 1.

Material examined. Brazil: 1 male, MZUSP 33249, Trindade Island, Enseada Orelhas, 20°29’40.2”S – 29°20’32.9”W, depth: 12 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 01.xi.2014; 1 ovig. female, MZUSP 33264, same collection data; 1 ovig. female, MZUSP 30251, Trindade Island, Enseada Orelhas, 20°29’32.3”S – 29°20’32.6”W, depth: 14.9 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 22.vi.2012; 1 male, MZUSP 33246, Trindade Island, Enseada dos Portugueses, SECON / ECIT, 20°30’20.9.3”S– 29°18’43.7”W, depth: 9 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 14.v.2014; 4 (3 ovig.) females, 1 juvenile, MZUSP 30248, Trindade Island, Enseada dos Portugueses, Praia da Calheta, SECON, 20°30’26.1”S – 29°18’44.2”W, depth: 12.3 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 03.vii.2012; 1 male, MZUSP 33295, Trindade Island, Enseada dos Portugueses, Ponta da Calheta, 20°30’18.7”S – 29°18’31.6”W, depth: 16.3 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 20.v.2014; 1 male, MZUSP 33263, Trindade Island, between Ponta da Crista do Galo and Ponta Norte, 20°29’14.8”S – 29°20’13.9”W, depth: 15 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 21.v.2014; 3 males, 4 (3 ovig.) females, MZUSP 30041, Trindade Island, Ponta Norte, 20°29’18.7”S – 29°20’18.3”W, depth: 15.6 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 03.vii.2012; 1 juvenile, MZUSP 30276, TAAF MD55 1987 “Marion Dufresne”, Trindade Island, Enseada dos Portugueses, depth: 10 m, vacuum device, coll. M. Tavares et al., 22.v.1987; 1 male, 1 ovig. female, MZUSP 33312, Trindade Island, Enseada do Príncipe, Ilha Sul, 20°31’34.3”S – 29°19’27.9”W, depth: 17.6 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 06.xi.2014; 1 male, MZUSP 33362, Trindade Island, Ilha da Racha, 20°30’26.5”S – 29°20’40.0”W, depth: 25 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 12.xi.2014; 1 male, 3 ovig. female, MZUSP 30953, Trindade Island, Enseada da Cachoeira, Farrilhões, 20°31’22.4”S – 29°19’52.0”W, depth: 11.9 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 16.vi.2012; 3 males, 2 ovig. females, MZUSP 33336, Trindade Island, Enseada da Cachoeira, Farrilhões, 20°31’22.4”S – 29°19’52.0”W, depth: 14.4 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 05.v.2014; 1 ovig. female, 4 juveniles, MZUSP 33397, Trindade Island, Praia dos Cabritos, 20°29’32.0”S – 29°19’46.5”W, depth: 9.2 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 28.iv.2014; 1 male, MZUSP 33302, Trindade Island, Ponta do Monumento, 20°30’10.3”S – 29°20’36.1”W, depth: 15 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 20.xi.2014; 2 males, 1 ovig. female, MZUSP 30297, Martin Vaz Island, 20°28’26.9”S – 28°51’20.9”W, depth: 13 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 23.vii.2013. Size of largest male: cl 4.7 mm ( MZUSP 33249); largest female: cl 5.1 mm ( MZUSP 30041). Numerous additional specimens (not listed above) are deposited in MZUSP.

Additional (extra-limital) material examined. Brazil: 1 male, 5 (3 ovig.) females, MZUSP 25346, Rio de Janeiro, Bacia de Campos, Petrobras oil platform P-65, depth: 16 m, fouling growth on platform piling, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 30.iii.2010 [material also examined by Cunha et al. (2015)].

Description. See Armstrong (1940) for original description (diagnosis), and Hendrix (1971), Ray (1974), Abele & Kim (1986) and Cunha et al. (2015) for illustrations; Santos et al. (2012) and Soledade & Almeida (2013) provided colour photographs of the Brazilian material of A. peasei (see also Figs. 7 , 8 ).

Distribution. Western Atlantic: Gulf of Mexico; Florida; throughout Caribbean Sea; Bermuda; Brazil: Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Trindade and Martin Vaz Archipelago (Soledade & Almeida 2013 and references therein; Cunha et al. 2015; present study).

Ecology. Coral and rocky reefs and associated habitats rich in coral rubble, coralline algae and sponges; dwelling deep in crevices of coral rocks, among sponge and fouling growth, clumps of coralline algae etc.; intertidal to at least 30 m.

Remarks. Alpheus peasei is one of the most common crevice-dwelling snapping shrimps in the tropical western Atlantic, particularly in the Caribbean Sea. The species was previously known from Brazil based on records from Bahia and Campos Basin off Rio de Janeiro ( Santos et al. 2012; Cunha et al. 2015) and is now recorded for the first time from Trindade Island, where it appears to be fairly common. Alpheus peasei appears to be somewhat variable in the general colour of the body, ranging from greenish-yellow to reddish; however, the brown and white markings on the major chela are very diagnostic ( Figs. 7 , 8 ).

Figures

FIGURE 7. Alpheus peasei (Armstrong, 1940), male from Enseada Orelhas, Trindade Island, Brazil (MZUSP 33249): A — dorsal view; B — lateral view. Photographs by J. B. Mendonça.

FIGURE 8. Alpheus peasei (Armstrong, 1940): A — male from Enseada dos Portugueses, Trindade Island, Brazil (MZUSP 33263), dorsal view; B — ovigerous female from Enseada Orelhas, Trindade Island, Brazil (MZUSP 33264), lateral view. Photographs by J. B. Mendonça.