Alpheus heterochaelis Say, 1818

Almeida, Alexandre O., Boehs, Guisla, Araújo-Silva, Catarina L. & Bezerra, Luis Ernesto A., 2012, Shallow-water caridean shrimps from southern Bahia, Brazil, including the first record of Synalpheus ul (Ríos & Duffy, 2007) (Alpheidae) in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean, Zootaxa 3347, pp. 1-35 : 11

Alpheus heterochaelis Say, 1818

Alpheus heterochaelis Say, 1818: 243 .

Material examined. See report by Almeida et al. (2006).

Distribution. Western Atlantic—North Carolina to Brazil ( Bahia ) ( Christoffersen 1984, Almeida et al. 2006).

Ecological notes. Estuaries, in the shallow subtidal (precise depth not recorded). Depth range: intertidal to 9 m ( Christoffersen 1984).

Previous records. Abrolhos Bank (RAP, St. 4, 34, and 38) ( Young & Serejo 2005); Ilhéus (Almeida et al. 2006).

Remarks. Many previous records of A. heterochaelis from Brazil were based on misidentifications and confusion with A. armillatus , A. bouvieri and A. nuttingi (Schmitt, 1924) , among others ( Christoffersen 1984). However, according to this author, A. heterochaelis s. str. does occur in Brazil, for example, in Pará and Paraíba states. Almeida et al. (2006) extended the southern distribution of A. heterochaelis to Ilhéus, Bahia . Alpheus pontederiae de Rochebrune, 1883, which also occurs in Brazil (see below), differs from A. heterochaelis by the presence of two small prominences on the mesial side of the major chela pollex, and by the distolateral spiniform seta of the uropodal exopod being flanked by two small, acute teeth. The record of A. heterochaelis from the Abrolhos Bank ( Young & Serejo 2005) is extremely doubtful, since this species is typically found in estuarine habitats.