Alpheopsis chalciope de Man , 1910 sensu

Anker, Arthur, Tavares, Marcos & Mendonça, Joel B., 2016, Alpheid shrimps (Decapoda: Caridea) of the Trindade & Martin Vaz Archipelago, off Brazil, with new records, description of a new species of Synalpheus and remarks on zoogeographical patterns in the oceanic islands of the tropical southern Atlantic, Zootaxa 4138 (1), pp. 1-58 : 12-13

Alpheopsis chalciope de Man, 1910 sensu lato

Alpheopsis Chalciope de Man 1910: 306 ; de Man 1911: 179, (1915) pl. 5, fig. 17. Alpheopsis chalciope— Banner & Banner 1966: 35, fig. 7; Johnson 1976: 34.

Material examined. Brazil: 1 male, MZUSP 31984, TAAF MD55 / Brésil 1987 campaign, sta. 24/DC42, Espírito Santo, off Guarapari, Vitória-Trindade Seamount Chain, 20°54’67”S – 36°01’35”W, depth: 60 m, rocks with sand, 17.v.1987. Size of male: cl 3.5 mm.

Additional (extra-limital) material examined. Brazil: 2 ovig. females, MZUSP 25351, REVIZEE — Comissão Central campaign, sta. VV35(01), Espírito Santo, continental shelf off Guriri, 18°52’S – 38°58’W, depth: 25.4 m, 28.ii.1996; 1 male, MZUSP 31985, REVIZEE — Comissão Central campaign, sta. D12, Espírito Santo, continental shelf margin off Gargaú, 21°36’S – 40°10’W, depth: 128.9 m, 25.ii.1996. Mexico: 1 ovig. female, CCY YUC-CC- 255-11-000875, Gulf of Mexico, Alacranes Reef, 22°29’16.1”N – 89°41’05.9”W, in crevice of dead coral rock, coll. J. Duarte, 13.viii.2009 (fcn JD-067). Belize: 2 (1 ovig.) females, MZUSP 34214, Carrie Bow Cay, depth: 3–20 m, in sponges Lissodendoryx spp., Mycale spp., Xestospongia spp., coll. E. Tóth, 15.iii.2006. Honduras: 1 male, OUMNH.ZC. 2007.20.0 0 69, Utila, Stingray Point, 16°04.131’N- 86°57.334’W, depth: 10 m, coral reef, under coral rubble, coll. A. Anker & S. De Grave, 05.vii.2007 (fcn H183). French Antilles: 1 male, FLMNH UF 32482, Saint Martin, near boundary marker of Réserve Nationale Naturelle de Saint-Martin, depth: about 20 m, coll. A. Anker et al., 25.iv.2012. Philippines: 1 ovig. female, MNHN-IU-2014-12833, Bohol Island, Manga, sta. S21, 09°41.7’N –123°50’09E, depth: 4–12 m, silty reef slope, coll. MNHN and Panglao Marine Biodiversity Project team, 20.vi.2004; 1 ovig. female, MNHN-IU-2014-12834, Panglao Island, Bingag, sta. B16, 09°37.6’N – 123°47’03E, depth: 20 m, coral rubble on sand and gravel, coll. MNHN and Panglao Marine Biodiversity Project team, 17.vi.2004.

Comparative material examined. Alpheopsis vietnamensis Tiwari, 1964 . Philippines: 3 females, MNHN-IU- 2014-12835, Balicasag Island, sta. T38, 09°32.3’N –123°42’03E, depth: 80–140 m, sponge bed, coll. MNHN and Panglao Marine Biodiversity Project team, 05.vii.2004; 1 female, OUMNH.ZC. 2016.02.0 12, same collection data; 1 female, MNHN-IU-2014-12836, same collection data.

Description. See de Man (1911) for description and illustrations and Banner & Banner (1966) for additional figures.

Distribution. Disjunct Indo-West Pacific and Western Atlantic. Western Atlantic: southern Gulf of Mexico: Alacranes Reef; Belize: Carrie Bow Cay; Honduras: Utila; French Antilles: Saint Martin; Brazil: continental shelf off Espírito Santo, Vitória-Trindade Seamount Chain (present study). Indo-West Pacific: Indonesia; Singapore; Philippines; Thailand (de Man 1911; Banner & Banner 1966; Johnson 1976; present study).

Ecology. Coral reefs and other hard or mixed bottom habitats rich in rocks, silt, gravel and coral rubble; under rocks and in rubble crevices, occasionally in sponges; shallow subtidal to about 130 m (most records from 3–25 m).

Remarks. Alpheopsis chalciope was described by de Man (1910, 1911) based on two ovigerous females from eastern Indonesia. The species was later recorded from Thailand and Singapore ( Banner & Banner 1966; Johnson 1976) and also occurs in the Philippines (present study, see material examined). The western Atlantic material of what appears to be A. chalciope or a morphologically identical, closely related sister taxon, was collected at several offshore stations in Brazil (Vitória-Trindade Seamount Chain and continental shelf off Espírito Santo), as well as in the Caribbean Sea ( Belize, Saint Martin) and the southern Gulf of Mexico (Alacranes Reef), mostly also in offshore habitats.

The identification of the western Atlantic material is further complicated by the morphological similarity between A. chalciope and A. vietnamensis Tiwari, 1964 (see comparative material). Tiwari (1964) listed five morpohological differences between these two species, including the length of the stylocerite, the armature of the ischium of the fifth pereiopod, and, most importantly, the shape of the pterygostomial angle of the carapace: with an acute tooth in A. chalciope vs. rounded in A. vietnamensis . This last character was used to assign the abovelisted Indo-West Pacific specimens to either A. chalciope or A. vietnamensis , although it was noted that in the smallest specimen identified as A. vietnamensis from the same deep-water locality as all the others, the pterygostomial angle has a minute subacute projection. Furthermore, at least two other distinguishing characters appear to be variable. Thus, the validity of A. vietnamensis and the confirmation of the taxonomic identity of the western Atlantic material will need a further morphological study (including a comparison of the above material to the type material of A. chalciope and A. vietnamensis ), combined with molecular analyses (A. Anker, pers. obs.), similar to those for the A. aequalis species complex (see above). For the time being, it seems most reasonable to treat the western Atlantic material as Alpheopsis chalciope sensu lato.