The sponge-dwelling snapping shrimps (Crustacea, Decapoda, Alpheidae, Synalpheus) of Discovery Bay, Jamaica, with descriptions of four new species
Author
Iii, Kenneth S Macdonald
Author
Hultgren, Kristin
Author
Duffy, Emmett
text
Zootaxa
2009
2199
1
57
journal article
40665
10.5281/zenodo.189568
c668ee01-6eff-451a-9b96-be6f14b35edc
1175-5326
189568
Synalpheus mcclendoni
Coutière
Color plate 4A, B
Material examined.
Jamaica
: non-ovigerous individual, ovigerous female, (
VIMS
08JAM2702,03), Dairy Bull Reef, from canals of unidentified white tube sponge. Non-ovigerous individual, (
VIMS
08JAM4101), Columbus Park, Discovery Bay, from canals of
Agelas
cf.
clathrodes
. 5 non-ovigerous individual, 3 ovigerous females, (
VIMS
08JAM6101,07,22,24,28), Columbus Park, Discovery Bay, from canals of
A.
cf.
clathrodes
. Non-ovigerous individual, (
VIMS
08JAM8201), wall off Rio Bueno, from canals of
A.
cf.
clathrodes
. 6 nonovigerous individuals, ovigerous female, (
VIMS
08JAM8802,03), Columbus Park, Discovery Bay, from canals of
Spheciospongia vesparium
Lamarck.
MaxCL ovigerous female:
3.09 mm
. MaxCL non-ovigerous individual:
3.91 mm
.
Color.
The specimens of
S. mcclendoni
found in
Jamaica
differed greatly in color, with three main variations: 1) translucent body, distal portion of major chela brownish, with pale brown ovaries and embryos; 2) translucent body, distal portion of major chela orange, with olive embryos and ovaries; and 3), translucent body, distal portion of major chela bright orange/red, with white crescent following extensor margin of dactyl and another white crescent across palm near base of fingers, embryos and ovaries green/yellow (see Color plate 4A, which shows the last of these morphs).
Hosts and ecology.
Synalpheus mcclendoni
was found inhabiting several species of sponges in
Jamaica
:
Agelas
cf.
clathrodes
,
Auletta
cf.
sycinularia
, and
Spheciospongia vesparium
. It is typically found as heterosexual pairs, or in small groups with equal sex ratios.
Distribution.
Florida,
USA
(
Coutière 1910
);
Bahamas
(
Dardeau 1984
);
Cuba
(
Martínez Iglesias and García Raso 1999
);
St. Lucia
,
Tobago
Cays, Yucatan
Mexico
(
Chace 1972
); Caribbean
Panama
(
Duffy 1992
);
Belize
(as “
S. rathbunae
A”, Macdonald et al. 2006;
Ríos and Duffy 2007
);
Jamaica
(this study).
Remarks.
The individuals examined here are morphologically very similar, yet they may represent more than one species based on body color and pattern, and embryo/ovary color. While individuals from
A.
cf.
sycinularia
had a brownish major chela and pale embryos, color does not otherwise seem to correlate with host, with some shrimp from
A.
cf.
clathrodes
having orange chela and olive ovaries and embryos, while other individuals from the same host species displayed the bright orange major chela with white crescent and green/ yellow embryos. However, individual sponges never contained mixed populations; all
S. mcclendoni
in a particular sponge shared the same color pattern. The bright orange/white crescent color pattern on the major chela was found in individuals from both
S. vesparium
and
A.
cf.
clathrodes
.