Leptalpheus forceps Williams, 1965

Pachelle, Paulo P. G., Anker, Arthur, Mendes, Cecili B. & Bezerra, Luis E. A., 2016, Decapod crustaceans from the state of Ceará, northeastern Brazil: an updated checklist of marine and estuarine species, with 23 new records, Zootaxa 4131 (1), pp. 1-63 : 12

Leptalpheus forceps Williams, 1965

( Figure 6 C)

Leptalpheus forceps Williams 1965: 194 , figs. 1, 2.

Material examined. Brazil, Ceará: 1 male (?) (heavily damaged specimen), LABOMAR-UFC 444, Fortaleza, Barra do Ceará, Rio Ceará estuary, coll. J. Fausto Filho, 23.i.1968; 1 male, 1 ov. female, OUMNH.ZC.2012-10- 0 0 27, Trairí, Rio Mundaú estuary, sand-mud flat, suction pump, in burrow of Lepidophthalmus siriboia Felder & Rodrigues, 1993 , coll. A. Anker & P.P.G. Pachelle, 26.ix.2011 [fcn 11-113].

Distribution. Western Atlantic: USA (North Carolina to Florida), Gulf of Mexico and Brazil (Ceará, Paraíba, Sergipe) ( Christoffersen 1998; Riul et al. 2008; Felder et al. 2009; present study).

Remarks. Leptalpheus forceps may be more common in Ceará, but is difficult to collect, due to its small size (total length typically less than 10 mm) and extremely cryptic lifestyle, i.e. association with the burrows of the ghost-shrimp Lepidophthalmus siriboia (see below).

Figures

FIGURE 6. Leptalpheus axianassae Dworschak & Coelho, 1999 (A, B) and Leptalpheus forceps Williams, 1965 (C): A, B, male from Paracuru, Ceará, Brazil (MZUSP 33457), in lateral (A) and dorsal (B) views; C, ovigerous female from Mundaú, Ceará, Brazil (OUMNH. ZC. 2012 - 10 - 0027), in lateral view. Scale bars: 2 mm. Photographs by P. P. G. Pachelle (A, B) and A. Anker (C).