Axianassa ngochoae Anker, 2010

Anker, Arthur, 2020, Strianassa lerayi gen. et sp. nov., a new laomediid mud-shrimp from the eastern Pacific, with new records of Axianassa ngochoae Anker, 2010 and Heteroaxianassa heardi (Anker, 2011) in the western Pacific (Malacostraca: Decapoda: Gebiidea), Zootaxa 4820 (3), pp. 523-539 : 533

Axianassa ngochoae Anker, 2010

( Fig. 8 )

Axianassa ngochoae Anker 2010: 50 , figs. 1–8; Ngoc-Ho 2014: 556 , fig. 5.

Material examined. 1 female (cl 6.2 mm, missing left cheliped), MNHN-IU-2018-986, New Caledonia, Pouébo , near Pouébo estuary, 20°22’43.0”S– 164°35’01.4”E, near-shore sand-mud flat near estuary of small river, deep nearshore pool with muddy bottom, depth at low tide: 0.3–0.5 m, suction pump, in burrow, leg. A. Anker, 18 September 2018 .

Remarks. The present specimen ( Fig. 8 ) represents the first record of A. ngochoae from New Caledonia. The species was previously known from the type series from Moorea Island, Society Islands, French Polynesia ( Anker 2010), as well as a single young male specimen from southern Vietnam ( Ngoc-Ho 2014). Axianassa ngochoae can be easily distinguished from the other two western Pacific congeners, for instance, from A. planioculus Komai & Fujita, 2019 by the dagger-shaped (not distally bifid) antennal scale, and from A. sinica Liu & Liu, 2010 by the rounded (not pointed) rostrum and the cheliped meri unarmed on their ventromesial margins (vs. with a strong subdistal tooth in A. sinica ).

Figures

FIGURE 8. Axianassa ngochoae Anker, 2010, female (cl 6.2 mm), MNHN-IU-2018-986, from Pouébo, New Caledonia: Aliving individual, missing left (major) cheliped, dorsal view; B—same, lateral view. Photographs by the author.