Alpheus spongiarum Coutière, 1897

Dehghani, Amir, Sari, Alireza & Naderloo, Reza, 2019, Annotated checklist of the snapping shrimps of the genus Alpheus Fabricius, 1798 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Alpheidae) from the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, Iran, Zootaxa 4544 (4), pp. 479-504 : 498

Alpheus spongiarum Coutière, 1897

Alpheus spongiarum Coutière, 1897c: 236 ; De Man, 1911: 362; Johnson, 1962: 52; 1963: 283; 1979: 41; Banner & Banner, 1978: 230; 1982: 116; 1985: 31; Chace, 1988: 54; Anker & De Grave, 2016: 369.

Material examined. GO: 3 males ( ZUTC 6688 ), Abu-Musa I., in passageways of dead sponges, Coll. A. Dehghani, 15 June 2016 ; 4 males ( ZUTC 6689 ), Siri I., in passageways of dead sponges, Coll. A. Sari, 14 Nov. 2016 ; GO: 2 males, 2 ovig. females ( ZUTC 6680 ) Chabahar Bay , Tis, in passageways of recently dead sponges washed to the beach, Coll. A. Dehghani, 2 Oct. 2016 .

Distribution. Indo-West Pacific: from Red Sea, PG, GO to Singapore, Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia.

Regional records. PG and GO: Iran (present study).

Habitat. This species is associated with living sponges and found in the passageways of dead sponges washed to the beach; from lower intertidal to over 3 m deep ( Anker & De Grave, 2016).

Remark. This species is easily distinguished by a distinct projection on the first abdominal pleura. All material collected from Siri Island shows the following features which agree well with Anker & De Grave’s (2016) material: 1) Ischium of third pereiopod unarmed; 2) First carpal article of second pereiopod about 0.4 times as length of second article; 3) First pleura projected and second to fifth pleura angular; 4) Scaphocerite blade short; 5) Major chela ovoid, not compressed; and 7) Dactylus of minor chela longer than palm (see Banner & Banner, 1982, Anker & De Grave, 2016).