Metapenaeus tenuipes Kubo, 1949

Hsu, Yen-Cheng, Chen, Chien-Lin & Chan, Tin-Yam, 2022, On the penaeid shrimps of the genus Metapenaeus Wood-Mason in Wood-Mason & Alcock, 1891 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Penaeidae) of Taiwan, Zootaxa 5169 (4), pp. 331-346 : 343-345

Metapenaeus tenuipes Kubo, 1949

( Fig. 7 )

Metapenaeus tenuipes Kubo 1949: 348 , figs. 7R, 22B, 31G, H, 62B, B’, 74N, T, 81H, 125G, 127 (type locality: Indonesia).— Racek & Dall 1965: 82, pl.7-fig.1, pl. 12-fig. 2.— Miquel 1982: 125, figs. 58-59.— Yu & Chan 1986: 131, 1 unnumbered fig.— Lee et al. 1999: 445.

Metapenaeus spinulatus Kubo 1949: 355 , figs. 7T, 47G, 74M, S, 81K, 129F, 130 [type locality: Thailand].— Lee & Yu 1977: 98, figs. 68-69.

Material examined. None.

Diagnosis. Based on descriptions of the single female collected by Lee & Yu (1977). Rostrum with distinct basal crest, bearing 5 (excluding epigastric tooth) dorsal teeth restricted to basal crest; distal 1/2 unarmed; short and straight, extending to middle of second segment of antennular peduncle. Pereiopod I with ischial spine. Telson with rows of minute and 2 larger movable lateral spines. Female thelycum with anterior plate small and rounded; coxal projections of pereiopod IV round plate like and not extending to lateral plates; lateral plates large, somewhat rhombus-shape and anteriorly with a “W”-like notch, lacking median longitudinal furrow.

Coloration. According to Miquel (1982) body generally whitish to yellowish with green dots. Uropods red margined and with distal part greyish green.

Distribution. Western Pacific from Thailand to Indonesia, Philippines and Taiwan, intertidal to 30 m deep ( Miquel 1982; Pérez Farfante & Kensley 1997).

Remarks. Metapenaeus tenuipes can be readily separated from the other species of the genus in Taiwan by having a distinct basal rostral crest and a short rostrum ( Fig. 7a ). No specimen of this species has been collected again from Taiwan since Lee & Yu (1977) recorded a single female nearly half a century ago (1974). Although this female specimen (registration number M 750 in Lee & Yu 1977) is now missing (not found in the Taiwan Fisheries Research Institute and NTOU, the affiliated institutions of Lee and Yu respectively), its identity is unmistaken from the figures provided by Lee & Yu (1977: figs. 68-69). According to Lee & Yu (1977), the single specimen of this species was collected from the Keelung fishing port in northern Taiwan with landing sometimes from fishing boats operated overseas. Nevertheless, M. tenuipes may just be rare in Taiwan like M. elegans which also only has one single specimen collected since 1988 despite of the recent extensive surveys of the decapod crustacean fauna in Taiwan.

According to Racek & Dall (1965) and Miquel (1982), there are marked sexual dimorphisms in M. tenuipes and with males having low basal rostral crest. This is also why Kubo (1949) named females of this species as M. tenuipes while males as M. spinulatus .

Figures

FIGURE 7. Metapenaeus tenuipes Kubo, 1949, female cl about 28 mm (after Lee & Yu, 1977). a, cephalothorax, lateral. b, thelycum. Scales: a = 14 mm; b = 3 mm.