Axianassa ngochoae Anker, 2010

(Fig. 8)

Axianassa ngochoae Anker 2010: 50, figs. 1–8; Ngoc-Ho 2014: 556, fig. 5.

Material examined. 1 female (cl 6.2 mm, missing left cheliped), MNHN-IU-2018-986, New Caledonia, Pouébo, near Pouébo estuary, 20°22’43.0”S– 164°35’01.4”E, near-shore sand-mud flat near estuary of small river, deep nearshore pool with muddy bottom, depth at low tide: 0.3–0.5 m, suction pump, in burrow, leg. A. Anker, 18 September 2018 .

Remarks. The present specimen (Fig. 8) represents the first record of A. ngochoae from New Caledonia. The species was previously known from the type series from Moorea Island, Society Islands, French Polynesia (Anker 2010), as well as a single young male specimen from southern Vietnam (Ngoc-Ho 2014). Axianassa ngochoae can be easily distinguished from the other two western Pacific congeners, for instance, from A. planioculus Komai & Fujita, 2019 by the dagger-shaped (not distally bifid) antennal scale, and from A. sinica Liu & Liu, 2010 by the rounded (not pointed) rostrum and the cheliped meri unarmed on their ventromesial margins (vs. with a strong subdistal tooth in A. sinica).