Plesionika narval ( Fabricius, 1787 )

Li, Xinzheng & Komai, Tomoyuki, 2003, Pandaloid Shrimps From The Northern South China Sea, With Description Of A New Species Of Plesionika (Crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea), Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 51 (2), pp. 257-275 : 265-266

Plesionika narval ( Fabricius, 1787)

Astacus Narval Fabricius, 1787: 331 [type locality: probably Nice, Mediterranean].

Parapandalus narval - Crosnier & Forest, 1973: 221, fig. 69a; Crosnier, 1976: 235, fig. 4b.

Plesionika serratifrons – Chace, 1985: 121, figs. 55, 56 (non Borradaile, 1899).

Plesionika narval – Lemaitre & Gore, 1988: 385, figs. 3k-m, 4; Chan & Crosnier, 1991: 443, figs. 12a-c, 13a, 14a-c, 15a-e, 34-36.

Material examined. – 1 male (cl 10.1 mm), 1 female (cl 6.7 mm) ( IOCAS), CN 17-26 , 17 30’N, 109 30’E, 110 m, sandy mud, AT, coll. J. Liu, 29 Jan.1959 ; 1 male (cl 9.9 mm) ( IOCAS), CN 31-29 , 20 00’N, 113 00’E, 114 m depth, muddy sand, AT, coll. S. Wang, 17 Feb.1959 ; 1 female (cl 11.8 mm), CN 23-8 , 17 00’N, 109 30’E, 153 m, mud, AT, coll. F. Xu, 18 Feb.1959 ; 1 female (cl 6.5 mm) ( IOCAS), CN 9-45 , 19 00’N, 112 00’E, 202 m, muddy sand, AT, coll. Z. Tang, 19 Feb.1959 ; 1 female (cl 7.9 mm) ( IOCAS), CN Q34 B-3, 17 30’N, 110 00’E, 140 m, sandy mud, BT, coll. Z. Fan, 7 Apr.1959 ; 8 females (cl 6.9-11.4 mm, aver. 10.0 mm), 2 ovig. females (cl 14.4, 14.5 mm) ( IOCAS), CN Q40 B-10, 17 45’N, 109 30’E, 84 m, BT, coll. Z. Fan, 9 Apr.1959 ; 14 males (cl 8.7- 11.0 mm), 12 females (cl 7.3-11.5 mm) ( IOCAS) , 1 male, 1 female ( ZRC), CN K34 B-65, 20 00’N, 113 00’E, 104 m, sand, AT, coll. F. Sun, 21 Apr.1959 ; 1 male (cl 6.7 mm) ( IOCAS), CN K46 B-19B, 20 00’N, 113 30’E, 140 m, sand, AT, coll. F. Sun, 25 Apr.1959 ; 1 female (cl 17.1 mm) ( IOCAS), CN SIII20 B-18, 21 45’N, 115 30’E, 105 m, sandy mud, AT, coll. W. Zhang, 14 Jul.1959 ; 2 males (cl 8.7 mm) ( IOCAS), CN SIII28 B-37, 21 45’N, 116 00’E, 103 m, sand, AT, coll. W. Zhang, 19 Jul.1959 ; 2 females (cl 6.3, 6.4 mm) ( IOCAS), CN N151 B-25, 17 00’N, 109 30’E, 164 m, mud, BT, coll. J. Liu, 11 Mar.1960 ; 3 females (cl 6.9-8.7 mm) ( IOCAS), CN N152 B-30, 17 00’N, 109 00’E, 128 m, sandy mud, BT, coll. J. Liu, 11 Mar.1960 ; 1 female (cl 6.0 mm) ( IOCAS), CN K164 B-6, 20 00’N, 113 30’E, 129 m, muddy sand, AT, coll. Z. Tang, 9 Apr.1960 ; 1 female (cl 11.3 mm) ( IOCAS), CN N206 B-66, 17 30’N, 109 30’E, 115 m, sandy mud, AT, coll. S. Shen, 14 May.1960 .

Distribution. – Mediterranean, eastern Atlantic from Gibraltar to Cape Verde Islands, South Atlantic, Red Sea, Indo-West Pacific from Madagascar to French Polynesia and northward to Japan, at depths of 35- 400 m.

Remarks. – It is difficult to distinguish this species from the allied P. serratifrons ( Borradaile, 1899) . Chan & Crosnier (1991) used the number of dorsal rostral teeth corresponding to the posteriormost 10 ventral rostrum teeth in distinguishing the two species. In our specimens, the posterior 10 ventral rostral teeth correspond to fewer than 13 dorsal teeth. Thus we refer our specimens to P. narval . Other than the differences in the rostrum armature, Chan & Crosnier (1991) stated that the number of the carpal articles of the second pereopods, shape of the antennular stylocerite, and the presence or absence of a notch at the basal part of the rostrum are useful to differentiate P. narval and P. serratifrons . However, it has been found that these characters are subtle and difficult to use.