Paraclimenes cf. franklini ( Bruce, 1990b )

Li, Xinzheng, Bruce, Alexander J. & Manning *, Raymond B., 2004, Some Palaemonid Shrimps (Crustacea: Decapoda) From Northern South China Sea, With Descripitions Of Two New Species, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 52 (2), pp. 513-553 : 534

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.13244123
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03F587FC-2F40-293B-8EA0-FC3CFF0E564F
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Paraclimenes cf. franklini ( Bruce, 1990b )
status

Treatment

Paraclimenes cf. franklini ( Bruce, 1990b) View in CoL

( Fig. 20 View Fig )

Periclimenes franklini Bruce, 1990b: 55-64 View in CoL , Figs. 1-5 View Fig View Fig View Fig View Fig View Fig ; 1991: 314,

Fig. 9 View Fig ; Müller, 1993: 83; Li, 2000: 182, Fig. 230. Paraclimenes franklini View in CoL - Bruce, 1994: 99, Fig. 45; 2003: 223.

Material examined. – 1 female, CN SIII29 B-13 ( CN), [22ºN, 116º30’E], 86m, sand, AT, coll. W. Zhang, 20 Jul.1959 .

Diagnosis. – Rostrum shallow, slightly up-turned, with 2 + 7/3-4 teeth, 2 postorbital dorsal teeth articulate. Carapace without supraorbital and antennal spines; hepatic spine slender, acute, reaching beyond anterior margin of carapace. Scaphocerite with distolateral tooth not reaching distal margin of lamella. Second pereiopods markedly unequal and subsimilar; without distoventral tooth on merus; carpus stout and short, at most 0.33 as long as palm, unarmed distally; fingers of major chela with strongly hooked, acute tips, dactyl armed proximally with 2 teeth on cutting edge, separated by U-shaped notch, fixed finger similar, with low tooth opposing U-shaped notch on dactyl, with low tricuspid tooth proximally; minor second pereiopod subsimilar to major second pereiopod, chela with distal half of fingers with sharp cutting edge, proximal teeth smaller than in major second pereiopod, subacute. Ambulatory pereiopods slender, with dactyl stout and biunguiculate; propodus with spinules on flexor margin.

Distribution. – Previously only known from the type locality in the Coral Sea and from New Caledonia. Recorded here for the first time from South China Sea.

Remarks. – The only female specimen has the following differences from Bruce’s (1990b) description: the rostrum is distinctly up-turned, and longer, about 0.94 of carapace length; hepatic spine on carapace exceeding anterior margin of carapace; posteroventral angle of sixth abdominal segment acute; first pereiopod with carpus shorter, 0.8 of chela length; major second pereiopod with chela stouter, 1.3 times carapace length. Moreover, our specimen was collected from 86m, much shallower than the depth of types, which were in 296- 302 m depth. It is possible that our specimen may represent a distinct species. Unfortunately, both types and our specimen lack records of host and coloration, which may be valuable for comparison. As reported in Bruce (1990b), the apparent differences of P. franklini from its close allied species P. gorgonicola ( Bruce, 1969a) are: the former has two large articulated postrostral spines on the carapace, which are replaced by smaller, non-articulate teeth in P. gorgonicola , and the stylocerite reaches to about 0.8 of proximal segment length in P. franklini and 0.5 in P. gorgonicola . In our specimen, there is distinct suture at base of the two postrostral spines, although the spines are not mobile, and the stylocerite reaches to about 0.7 of the length of the proximal segment of the antennular peduncle. We therefore consider the specimen is closer to P. franklini ( Bruce, 1990b) . The first author (XLi) found other 2 males and 2 females collected from East China Sea (28ºN, 122º58.5’E) at 80 meters depth, which are identical with this female specimen. The collection of further specimens, with information on the coloration of fresh specimens should help to identify the members of this genus.