Heptacarpus franciscanus ( Schmitt, 1921 )

Wicksten, Mary K., 2012, Decapod Crustacea of the Californian and Oregonian Zoogeographic Provinces 3371, Zootaxa 3371, pp. 1-307 : 82

Heptacarpus franciscanus ( Schmitt, 1921)

( Fig. 20F)

Spirontocaris franciscana Schmitt, 1921: 60 , pl. 12, figs. 8, 9.

Heptacarpus franciscanus . — Holthuis 1947: 12. — Word & Charwat 1976: 117. — Carvacho & Olson 1984: 59. — Wicksten 1990b: 594. — Chace 1997: 44. — Kuris et al. 2007: 639.

Diagnosis. Rostrum exceeding scaphocerite, with 4–6 dorsal teeth reaching at least to end of antennular peduncle, 5–7 ventral teeth including small tooth just distal to apex. First segment of antennular peduncle with distal spine. Carapace with suborbital, antennal teeth, no pterygostomian tooth. Stylocerite not exceeding first segment of antennular peduncle. Third maxilliped with epipod. No epipods on pereopods. Pereopods 3–5 with short dactyls bearing 4 stout spines along each flexor margin. Merus of pereopod 3, with 4 spines; pereopod 4, with 4 spines; pereopod 5, 1 spine. Abdominal somite 3 with posterior margin produced ("geniculate") over anterior margin of abdominal somite 4. Pleura of abdominal somites 1–4 rounded, 5 with posterolateral point. Telson with 4–6 pairs dorsolateral spines. Female total length to 46 mm, male not reported. Diagnosis based on fresh specimen from Santa Monica Bay, California and modified from Schmitt 1921.

Color in life. Pale reddish brown ( Schmitt 1921). Red with turquoise dots forming curved line running proximally across the posterior 0.3 of carapace length, turquoise dots on abdominal somites 1, 2. Pereopods 3–5 red near body, fading to translucent distally. The color notes are from a shrimp from Santa Monica Bay, California.

Habitat and depth. On rocks or sand, among red algae, 4–23 m. Although this species is included in the key to intertidal invertebrates of central California ( Kuris et al., 2007), all the specimens I have seen were from subtidal areas .

Range. San Francisco Bay , California to Todos Santos Bay , Baja California, Mexico. Type locality off Point Bonita, San Francisco Bay, California (Albatross station D5770) .

Remarks. Two small and blurred photographs accompanied Schmitt's original description. Schmitt stated that this species differs from the very similar H. stylus ( Stimpson, 1864) , not reported south of Puget Sound, by having teeth extending to the distal half of the dorsal margin of the rostrum, the rostrum only "slightly exceeding" the scaphocerite and the antennal peduncle (carpocerite) reaching about as far forward as the antennular peduncle. He also reported that there was a very small tooth just proximal to the apex of the rostrum, giving the apex a bifid appearance. I have not been able to examine the type material of H. franciscanus . According to the description and illustration of H. stylus by Butler (1980), the lengths of the rostrum relative to that of the carapace and the carpocerite relative to that of the scaphocerite are almost alike in the two species. The only consistent difference between the two species is the arrangement of dorsal rostral teeth: extending to nearly the midlength of the rostrum in H. franciscanus and barely reaching the length of the cornea of the eye in H. stylus .

The length of the rostrum clearly exceeds the length of the scaphocerite in the material of H. franciscanus examined. The small subapical ventral tooth of the rostrum is absent. The illustrated specimen from Santa Monica Bay has 4, not 5, dorsal teeth on the carapace and rostrum. The specimen drawn by Word & Charwat (1976) had 5 dorsal teeth and 4 ventral teeth on the rostrum.