Upogebia pusill

Marin, Ivan, 2021, Burrowing mud shrimps (Decapoda: Axiidea & Gebiidea) of the northeastern Black Sea and their external parasites, Zootaxa 5039 (4), pp. 571-583 : 577-580

Upogebia pusill a ( Petagna, 1792)

( Fig. 5 a–c )

Astacus pusillus Petagna, 1792: 418 , pl. 5, fig. 5.

Gebia lacustris O.G. Costa, 1836 [in O.G. Costa & A. Costa, 1838 -1871]

Thalassina littoralis Risso, 1816: 76 , pl. 3, fig. 2.

Gebia venetiarum Nardo, 1869: 314 , pl. 13, fig. 3

Material examined. AZOV SEA: 4♂♂, 5 ovigerous ♀♀ ( LEMMI)— Taman Bay , 45°13’14.8”N 36°44’21.6”E, 1.0 depth 0.5–1.5 m, fine sand with sea grass, with yabbi pump, coll. I. Marin, 3.08.2019; BLACK SEA : Crimean

Peninsula : 1♂ ( ZMMU Ma 6201), 1 ovigerous ♀ ( ZMMU Ma 6202), 2♂♂, 3 ovigerous ♀♀ ( LEMMI)— Kruglaya Bay, 44°35’51.8”N 33°26’40.8”E, depth 0.5–1.5 m, fine sand, yabby pump, coll. I. Marin, 14.06.2020 ; 2♂♂, 2 ovigerous ♀♀ ( LEMMI)— Kazachiya Bay , 44°34’10.8”N 33°24’47.1”E, fine sand, yabby pump, coll. I. Marin, 10.06.2020 ; Anapa Area : 1♀ ( ZMMU Ma 1111), 2♂♂, 4 ovigerous ♀♀ ( LEMMI)— Anapa Beach, 44°55’13.4”N 37°18’45.8”E, depth 0.5–1.5 m, fine sand, yabby pump, coll. I. Marin, 7.08.2019 ; 1♂, 2♀♀ ( LEMMI)— Maliy Utrish , the Utrish Biological station, small coastal lake (liman), 44°41’41.4”N 37°29’03.4”E, depth 1.5 m, muddy bottom, yabby pump, 12.08.2018 .

Remarks. Upogebia pusilla is the only gebiidean shrimp that has been recorded from the northern coasts of the Black Sea. From the other congeneric species occurring in the Mediterranean basin it can be separated by the combination of the relatively short rostrum (less than 1.5 times as long as wide), the possession of an anterolateral spine on the carapace and the subchelate pereopod 1 ( Ngoc-Ho, 2003).

Parasite. The branchial parasite Gyge branchialis Cornalia & Panceri, 1861 ( Isopoda : Bopyridae ) is recorded for the species in the north-eastern part of the Black Sea ( Fig. 4 c ).

Distribution. The species is one of the most common species on the Mediterranean Sea, also distributed along the East Atlantic from Mauritania and São Thomé in the south in the south to Brittany and occasionally Norway in the north (Zariquiey Alvarez, 1968; Saint Laurent & Leloeuff, 1979; Ngoc-Ho, 2003); was reported from the Suez Canal (Monod, 1930); lives in the salinity range from 9–36‰, from the intertidal zone down to a depth of 45 m in sediments ranging from a mixture of gravel, sand, silt, and clay to mud ( Dworschak, 1987, 1988). It has been recorded across the entire coastal waters of the Black and Azov Seas (e.g., Makarov, 2004), where usually lives in deep Y-shaped burrows, which are built in soft soil (sand or muddy silt); can build holes in clay slabs, where found together with boring bivalve Pholas dactylus Linnaeus, 1758 ( Bivalvia, Pholadidae ). Upogebia pusilla usually form large settlements in different soft substrates with a high density in in the bay water area (e.g., Makarov, 2004); for example, up to 40–58 spms/m 2 in the Balaklavskaya Bay in 2006 (after Tikhonova & Alemov, 2012; Revkov & Revkova, 2016).

Figures

FIGURE 4. Necallianassa truncata (Giard & Bonnier, 1890) from the north-eastern Black Sea (a–c—♂, cl. 9.8 mm, ZMMU Ma 6189; d—♂, cl. 8.9 mm, ZMMU Ma-6190; e, f—♀, cl. 9.2 mm, ZMMU Ma 6191): a, b, e—habitus (a, e—dorsal; b—lateral views); c—major PI (cheliped), internal view; d—chela of major PI, internal view; f—telson and uropods, dorsal view.

FIGURE 5. Upogebia pusilla (Petagna, 1792): a—♂ (cl. 20.2 mm, ZMMU Ma 6201), habitus, lateral view; b—chela of PI (cheliped) of the same ♂, outer view; c—♀ (cl. 18.3 mm, LEMMI) with the branchial parasite Gyge branchialis Cornalia & Panceri, 1861 (arrow); d—Gilvossius tyrrhenus (Petagna, 1792), probably ♂ (cl. 17.5 mm; LEMMI) with the rhizocephalan Parthenopea subterranea Kossmann, 1874 (arrow).