Alpheus vanderbilti Boone, 1930

Alpheus vanderbilti Boone 1930: 163, fig. 5, pl. 58; Anker et al. 2008a: 60, figs. 2, 3B, C, 4E–H, J, K; Souza et al. 2011: 47. Alpheus cylindricus — Zimmer 1913: 394; Crosnier & Forest 1966: 257, fig. 16; Christoffersen 1979: 310 [not A. cylindricus Kingsley, 1878].

[for more complete synonymy prior to 2008 see Anker et al. (2008a)]

Material examined. Brazil: 1 ovig. female, MZUSP 30294, Trindade Island, Enseada da Cachoeira, Farrilhões, 20°31’22.4”S – 29°19’52.0”W, depth: 17.9 m, coll. J.B. Mendonça, 04.vii.2012. Size of female: cl 2.5 mm.

Description. See Boone (1930) for original description and illustrations, Crosnier & Forest (1966) for illustrations of the eastern Atlantic material (as A. cylindricus), and Anker et al. (2008a) for redescription and additional illustrations (including colour photographs).

Distribution. Amphi-Atlantic: São Tomé & Principe; Equatorial Guinea: Annobon Island; Gulf of Mexico; throughout Caribbean Sea; Florida; Bermuda; Brazil: Maranhão to Bahia, Trindade Island (Crosnier & Forest 1966; Christoffersen 1979; Anker et al. 2008a; Soledade & Almeida 2013 and references therein; present study).

Ecology. Various habitats with rocky and mixed rocky-sandy bottoms; in loggerhead sponges ( Spheciospongia) or in boring sponges lining cracks and crevices in or between rocks and clumps of calcareous algae; lower intertidal to 45 m (western Atlantic) or 73 m (eastern Atlantic) (Anker et al. 2008a).

Remarks. Alpheus vanderbilti, although widespread in the tropical Atlantic Ocean (Anker et al. 2008c), is rarely collected, which is mainly due to its mainly subtidal occurrence and extremely cryptic life style. The species is recorded for the first time from Trindade Island based on a single small (cl 2.5 mm) but already ovigerous female. Alpheus vanderbilti and its eastern Pacific sister species A. cylindricus Kingsley, 1878 can be relatively easily recognised by the unique shape of the major and minor chelipeds, and in life, also by their diagnostic colour patterns (Anker et al. 2008a).