Chorocaris, MARTIN & HESSLER, 1990

Martin, Joel W. & Haney, Todd A., 2005, Decapod crustaceans from hydrothermal vents and cold seeps: a review through 2005, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 145 (4), pp. 445-522 : 463-464

GENUS CHOROCARIS MARTIN & HESSLER, 1990

Remarks: The genus Chorocaris was established by Martin & Hessler (1990) to accommodate C. vandoverae from the Mariana Back-Arc Basin, western Pacific, and the former Rimicaris chacei Williams & Rona, 1986 , from the mid-Atlantic Ridge. A third species was recently described from the southern part of the EPR ( Martin & Shank, 2005). There is also a shrimp species reported as Chorocaris sp. from the Kairei Field in the Indian Ocean ( Van Dover et al., 2001), although that species now appears to be a member of the genus Mirocaris (T. Komai, pers. comm., and Komai et al., in press; see under Mirocaris ). Another species of Chorocaris (as yet undescribed) has been found at vents on seamounts off New Zealand ( Webber & Bruce, 2002, on the NIWA website at http://www.niwa.co.nz/pubs/bu/05/blind, and N. Bruce, pers. comm.), and Desbruyères et al. (1994) noted the possibility of the genus in samples from the Lau and Fiji basins; this needs confirmation. Shank et al. (1999) suggested, based on molecular evidence, that the genus (known at that time only from C. chacei in the Atlantic and C. vandoverae in the western Pacific) might be paraphyletic. We have listed the possibly erroneous report of an Indian Ocean species as Chorocaris sp. A and the Kermadec Ridge report as Chorocaris sp. B in our tables, with the following information.

Chorocaris sp. A . Van Dover et al. (2001: 820, fig. E) reported ‘ Chorocaris sp. ’ from the Indian Ocean, Central Indian Ridge, Kairei Field. The species appears to be a member of Mirocaris rather than Chorocaris (see under Mirocaris sp. A . for materials and additional information). Thus, the Chorocaris sp. A in Table 1 is probably the same species as listed below (and in Table 1) under Mirocaris sp. A , although it is also possible that there is a species of Chorocaris in the Indian Ocean that was not collected.

Chorocaris sp. B . A few specimens of a shrimp species that appears to belong to Chorocaris have been found recently on seamounts of the Kermadec Ridge off New Zealand (R. Webber, pers. comm.; see also Clark & O’Shea, 2001; Webber, 2004).