Neocallichirus cacahuate Felder & Manning, 1995

(Figs. 3–5)

Neocallichirus cacahuate Felder & Manning 1995: 478, figs. 1a–c, 2, 3a–e, 4a–c, 5.— Blanco-Rambla 2000: 74, fig. 3.

Material examined. Brazil, Ceará: 1 male (cl 8.4 mm), MZUSP 32615, Icapuí, Praia de Tremembé, sand-mud flat, in burrow, suction pump, coll. P. Pachelle, 10.ii.2014.

Distribution. Western Atlantic: USA (Florida), Venezuela (Sucre), Brazil (Ceará) (Felder & Manning 1995; Blanco-Rambla 2000; present study).

Remarks. The single available male from Ceará matches Neocallichirus cacahuate of Felder & Manning (1995) in most diagnostic characters, including the shape and armature of the first chelipeds, the configuration of the frontal margin, the strongly bulbous cornea on the eyestalks, the anteriorly produced ventral margin of the third maxilliped propodus, the spine-shaped posterior lobe of the male first pleopod (cf. Figs. 4, 5; Felder & Manning 1995: figs. 1a–c, 2g, 3a) and the bright pink-reddish colour with pale-yellow gonads visible by translucence (cf. Fig. 3; Felder & Manning 1995: 486).

Among the Brazilian species of Neocallichirus, N. cacahuate is most similar to N. grandimana (Fig. 8), which seems to be the most common and widely distributed species of the genus in Brazil. Neocallichirus cacahuate can be separated from N. grandimana by the combination of the above-listed diagnostic characters, especially by the proportions of the first cheliped carpi. Although the specimen from Ceará is probably not a fully developed male (judging from the carapace length and armature of the major first cheliped, cf. Fig. 5 A), it can be readily distinguished from a similar-sized male of N. grandimana from Bahia (MZUSP 18588). In the tropical northwestern Atlantic, N. cacahuate may be easily confused with N. lemaitrei Manning, 1993 from Colombia, from which it differs by the weaker serration on the ventral margin of the carpus and propodus of the major first cheliped (including immature specimens, cf. Felder & Manning 1995: 488, fig. 1b; Manning 1993: fig. 1e) and the less setose, more strongly toothed cutting edge of the fixed finger of the minor first cheliped (cf. Felder & Manning 1995: figs. 3a, 6a).

The material from Ceará represents only the third finding of N. cacahuate, and the first record of the species in Brazil and the southwestern Atlantic, extending its distribution southwards by some 14 degrees. According to Felder & Manning (1995: 486–487), the type specimens were collected on a sparsely vegetated sand flat dominated by N. maryae (as N. rathbunae), S. guassutinga (as S. mericeae Manning & Felder, 1995) and Callichirus major (Say, 1818) . The Ceará specimen of N. cacahuate was collected in very similar conditions, i.e. on a very extensive sand-mud flat with sparse banks of seagrass ( Halodule sp.), syntopically with N. maryae, S. guassutinga and C. major .