Alpheus cf. packardii Kingsley, 1880

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 : 11-12

Alpheus cf. packardii Kingsley, 1880

Alpheus packardii Kingsley, 1880: 417 .

Material examined. 2 m, 1 f, 02.VIII.2008, Cairú, Moreré Beach, Boipeba Island, MZUESC 1297; 1 f, 02.VIII.2008, Cairú, Moreré Beach, Boipeba Island, MZUESC 1298; 1 m, 16.V.2007, Santa Cruz Cabrália, Coroa Vermelha Beach, MZUESC 869.

Distribution. Western Atlantic—Bermuda, Virginia to South Carolina, Florida, Gulf of Mexico, Bahamas, Mexico (Quintana Roo and Yucatan), West Indies and Brazil (Atol das Rocas, Fernando de Noronha, Amapá to São Paulo) ( Christoffersen 1979, 1998, as A. normanni Kingsley, 1878 ; Martínez-Iglesias et al. 1996, as A. normanni ).

Ecological notes. Species collected on coral reefs, in crevices of coral rubble and in Halimeda clumps. Salinity = 39 psu. Depth range: intertidal to 70 m ( Christoffersen 1979, as A. normanni ).

Previous records. Itapagipe (= Itapagipe Peninsula, Salvador) ( Christoffersen 1979, as Alpheus normanni ); R/ V Wladimir Besnard (St. 3770, 17º16.7’S, 39º05’W) ( Christoffersen 1979, as A. normanni ); R/V Calypso (St. 56, 69, 75, 81–83) ( Christoffersen 1979, as A. normanni ); Abrolhos Bank (RAP, St. 2 and 38) ( Young & Serejo 2005, as A. normanni ); Camamu Bay ( Almeida et al. 2007b, Alpheus cf. packardii ).

Remarks. Kingsley (1878) described A. normanni based on specimens from the Pacific coast of Panama. Two years later the same author described A. packardii based on specimens from Key West, Florida ( Kingsley 1880). Chace (1937) compared the eastern Pacific and the western Atlantic ( Bermuda) materials of A. normanni and A. packardii and concluded that they are identical morphologically, placing A. packardii in the synonymy of A. normanni . Both Chace (1972) and Christoffersen (1979) continued to treat A. packardii as a junior synonym of A. normanni . Kim & Abele (1988) again compared specimens from the eastern Pacific and western Atlantic (Florida). These authors found consistent morphological differences between the eastern Pacific and western Atlantic specimens, viz. in the fingers of the minor chela, and removed A. packardii from the synonymy of A. normanni . However, the taxonomy of both A. normanni and A. packardii remains unsettled due to the presence of several cryptic taxa in the eastern Pacific and western Atlantic (A. Anker, in study). Thus, it is presently impossible to determine the true identity of the Bahian material.