Macrobrachium lingyunense ( Li and Luo, 2001 )

Cai, Yixiong & Ng, Peter Kee Lin, 2018, Freshwater Shrimps from Karst Caves of Southern China, with Descriptions of Seven New Species and the Identity of Typhlocaridina linyunensis Li and Luo, 2001 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea), Zoological Studies 57 (27), pp. 1-33 : 29

Macrobrachium lingyunense ( Li and Luo, 2001)

Typhlocaridina lingyunensis Li and Luo, 2001: 72 , fig. 1. Macrobrachium lingyunense Li, Cai and Clarke, 2006: 277 , figs.

1-3.

Material examined: Paratypes of Macrobrachium lingyunense Li, Cai and Clarke, 2006 - one female, cl 15.1 mm, ZRC, Sadong (Sand Cave), north of Lingyun Town, Lingyun County, Guangxi Province, China, coll. Arthur Clarke, 11 Oct 2000; one male, cl 12.8 mm, one female, cl 8.5 mm, ZRC 2005.0138, Sadong (Sand Cave), north of Lingyun Town, Lingyun County, Guangxi Province, China, coll. Arthur Clarke, 11 Oct 2000.

Remarks: “ Typhlocaridina lingyunensis ” was described by Li and Luo (2001) on the basis of two small specimens measuring 31 and 32 mm in body length from a cave in Guangxi, but this is actually a species of Macrobrachium ( Palaemonidae ) and clearly is not an atyid shrimp at all. The type specimens were deposited in the management office of Heilongtan Reservior in Shilin county of Yunnan Province and are not available for reexamination. The original description is rather brief and the figures are not good, but the characters of the first pereiopod ( Li and Luo, 2001: fig. 1 (3)), second pereiopod ( Li and Luo, 2001: fig. 1 (4)), third pereiopod ( Li and Luo, 2001: fig. 1 (5)) and the fifth pereiopod ( Li and Luo, 2001: fig. 1 (6)) leave no doubt that this taxon is a palaemonid.

Although the drawing of telson (cf Li and Luo, 2001: fig. 1 (7)) shows a difference in distal end of telson between T. lingyunensis and M. linyunense (cf Li et al., 2006: fig. 2G); this, however, most probably is due to the poor drawing in Li and Luo (2001: fig. 1(7)), which could not differentiate the sublateral pairs of spines from the intermediate setae. The number of movable spines on dorsal surface of telson also shows differences between T. linyunensis and other Typhlocaridina species (2 pairs in Li and Luo, 2001: fig 1(7), described as 3 pairs in table 1, vs. 5-7 pairs in that of other Typhlocaridina species ( Liang 2004:305; 308); while the number in M. linyunense is 2 pairs ( Li et al., 2006: 279). The length of sublateral pairs of spines in distal end of telson is subequal to intermediate pairs of setae in M. linyunense ( Li et al., 2006: fig. 2G) and in T. linyuensis Li and Luo, 2001 : fig. 1(7), while in Typhlocaridina species, sublateral pair of spines distinctly much longer than intermediate pairs of setae ( Liang 2004: fig. 149b; fig. 150c).

The type specimen of “ Typhlocaridina lingyunensis ” is small and subadult, but from the shape of the carapace, rostrum and pereopod proportions, it is almost certainly identical to Macrobrachium lingyunense . Both species were from the same cave, Sand Cave (Shadong in Chinese).

Li and Luo’s (2001) publication, which was published in a local university journal in Guangxi, was not known to Li et al. (2006) when they described M. lingyunense . Nevertheless, Li and Luo (2001) has precedence over Li et al. (2006), and the species should now be considered Macrobrachium lingyunense ( Li and Luo 2001) .