Leptalpheus pacificus

Anker, Arthur, Vera Caripe, Jonathan A. & Lira, Carlos, 2006, Description of a new species of commensal alpheid shrimp (Crustacea, Decapoda) from the southern Caribbean Sea, Zoosystema 28 (3), pp. 683-702 : 687-688

7 aff. pacificus in Table 1). All members of this group

Anker A. et al.

occur in the Indo-West Pacific: Madagascar, Vietnam, Philippines, Fiji and Hawaii (see Table 1).

DEFINITION

Frontal margin without rostrum; orbital hoods without crests. Antennular peduncle slender, with each segment longer than wide,second segment moderately elongated; stylocerite laterally convex, only slightly apressed against first segment of antennular peduncle, reaching or overreaching distal margin of first segment. Major cheliped with ischium lacking tooth on ventromesial margin; surface smooth, without granules or tubercles; major chela with large adhesive discs; dactylus of major chela without dense row of long filtering setae; cutting edge of pollex armed with only two large teeth; dactylus distoventrally thickened, with one or two teeth. Second pereiopod with five carpal segments. Third pereiopod with unarmed ischium. Uropodal exopod with bluntly angular posterolateral margin.

REMARKS The L. pacificus group differs from the L. forceps group ( Leptalpheus s.s.) mainly by three characters on the major cheliped:the chela, merus and ischium smooth, without granules or tubercles; the presence of well developed adhesive discs; and the pollex armed with two peculiar teeth, a larger proximal tooth and a smaller subdistal tooth ( Banner & Banner 1974; Anker 2001).