Synalpheus brooksi Coutière

Iii, Kenneth S Macdonald, Hultgren, Kristin & Duffy, Emmett, 2009, The sponge-dwelling snapping shrimps (Crustacea, Decapoda, Alpheidae, Synalpheus) of Discovery Bay, Jamaica, with descriptions of four new species, Zootaxa 2199, pp. 1-57 : 13-14

Synalpheus brooksi Coutière

Material examined. Jamaica: non-ovigerous individual ( VIMS 08JAM0103), Columbus Park, Discovery Bay, from canals of Hyattella intestinalis . Non-ovigerous individual and ovigerous female ( VIMS 08JAM0703,06), Columbus Park, Discovery Bay, from canals of H. intestinalis . MaxCL non-ovigerous individual: 3.05 mm.

Color. Translucent overall, distal portion of major chela usually orange; ovaries and embryos vary in color, but are typically pale.

Hosts and ecology. In Jamaica S. brooksi were collected as infrequent inhabitants of H. intestinalis . In other regions, S. brooksi can also be found, often in large numbers, in the common loggerhead sponge Spheciospongia vesparium Lamarck and in Lissodendoryx colombiensis Zea & van Soest. However, in Jamaica we found no L. colombiensis , and only a single S. vesparium , which harbored no S. brooksi .

Distribution. Bahamas ( Coutière 1909; Pearse 1950; Lemaitre 1984; Macdonald & Duffy 2007); Florida Keys, USA ( Coutière 1909, 1910; McClendon 1911; Pearse 1932; Heard & Perlmutter 1977; Duffy 1993); Gulf of Mexico ( Coutière 1909; Lyons et al. 1971; Dardeau 1984; Erdmann & Blake 1987); Yucatan, Mexico ( Coutière 1909; Chace 1972); Cuba ( Martínez Iglesias & García Raso 1999); Puerto Rico ( Rathbun 1901; Coutière 1909); US Virgin Islands ( Coutière 1909); Leeward Islands, Windward Islands, Tobago ( Chace 1972); Netherlands Antilles ( Westinga & Hoetjes 1981); Caribbean Panama ( Duffy 1992, 1993, 1996b); Surinam ( Holthuis 1959); Belize ( Duffy 1993; Macdonald et al. 2006; Macdonald & Duffy 2007; Ríos & Duffy 2007); Brazil ( Coutière 1909; Coelho & Ramos 1972); Discovery Bay, Jamaica (this study).

Remarks. Synalpheus brooksi is the nominal species of the complex of morphologically similar and presumably closely related Synalpheus species that includes S. bousfieldi , S. carpenteri , S. chacei , S. corallinus n. sp., S. plumosetosus n. sp., and S. thele n. sp. (see Table 3). Synalpheus brooksi is distinguishable from all of these species by the distal protuberance on the palm of the major chela, which is bluntly conical and directed upward and slightly away from the dactyl. Unlike S. brooksi collected from other localities, Jamaican specimens have two parallel rows of setae on their minor chela dactyl, as described for S. chacei, (Duffy 1998) and for S. corallinus and S. thele (this paper), rather than a thick brush. Due to this distinctive difference, the identification of the three individuals from Jamaica as S. brooksi must be provisional pending further study.