Eupontonia Bruce, 1971

Komai, Tomoyuki & Minemizu, Ryo, 2014, A new species of the pontoniine shrimp genus Eupontonia (Crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea: Palaemonidae) from the Ryukyu Islands, Japan, Zootaxa 3784 (2), pp. 171-178 : 172

Eupontonia Bruce, 1971

[New Japanese name: Awamori-kakure-ebi-zoku]

Eupontonia Bruce, 1971: 15 ; 1995; 2010: 413 (key).— Holthuis 1993: 118 (key), 142.— Li 2000: 48; Li et al. 2007: 171 (key), 198; Li 2009: 887 (key).

Emended diagnosis. Body moderately robust, subcylindrical or slightly compressed laterally; integument glabrous. Rostrum slender, straight, dentate dorsally and ventrally, compressed laterally, lateral carinae distinct. Carapace with distinct postorbital ridge; suborbital angle not delimited; pterygostomial angle rounded; antennal tooth present; supraorbital and hepatic teeth absent. Fourth thoracic sternite with spiniform median process. Pleon with first to fourth pleura rounded; third pleomere with posterodorsal margin rounded, not produced. Telson with 2 pairs of long dorsolateral spines, posterior margin with 3 pairs of spines. Antennule normal. Antennal scale well developed. Eye with cornea narrower than eyestalk. Epistome unarmed. Mandible robust, with simple or 2- articulated palp; incisor and molar processes well developed. Maxillule with weakly divided palp, endites broad. Maxilla moderately broad scaphognathite. First and second maxillipeds normal. Third maxilliped with ischiomerus (antepenultimate segment) partially fused with basis; exopod well developed; rudimentary arthrobranch present. First pereopod slender. Second pereopods similar, subequal, fingers without conspicuous teeth. Third to fifth pereopods with simple dactyli; propodi each with spinules on flexor margin. Uropod with exopod armed with 1 or 2 movable posterolateral spines.

Composition. Eupontonia noctalbata Bruce, 1971 (type species), E. oahu Bruce, 2010 and E. gracilipes n. sp.

Remarks. The present new species generally agrees with the generic diagnosis of Eupontonia , particularly in the presence of a postorbital ridge on the carapace, the absence of a hepatic tooth on the carapace, the reduced cornea and stout eyestalk, and the spinulate propodi of the third and fourth pereopods ( Bruce 1971; 2010). However, the presence of a postrostral tooth on the carapace in the new species requires a minor emendation to the generic diagnosis once emended by Bruce (2010), in differentiating Eupontonia from Vir . In spite of the elimination of the character on the postrostral tooth, Eupontonia is easily differentiated from Vir by the characters mentioned above.