Pontocaris affinis affinis (Alcock, 1901)

Purushothaman, P., Chakraborty, Rekha Devi, Kuberan, G. & Maheswarudu, G., 2018, New records of Pontocaris affinis affinis (Alcock, 1901) and Pontocaris propensalata Spence Bate, 1888 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Crangonidae) from Quilon bank of Southeastern Arabian Sea, Zootaxa 4378 (2), pp. 269-272 : 269-270

Pontocaris affinis affinis (Alcock, 1901) ( fig. 1 )

Aegeon affine Alcock, 1901: 118 — Alcock & Mcardle, 1901: pl. 51, figs 3-3a, 4.

Aegeon pennata var. affinis— De Man, 1920: 292.

Pontocaris pennata— Holthuis, 1980: 152 (in part). Non Bate, 1888.

? Aegeon pennata— Kemp, 1916: 376 (in part, material from India). Non Bate, 1888.

? Pontocaris pennata— Sankolli & Shenoy, 1979: 62. Non Bate, 1888.

Pontocaris affinis affinis— Chan, 1996: 300, fig. 11.

Material examined: A specimen submitted to Marine Biodiversity Museum at Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute: Southeastern Arabian Sea, ID: ED.2.6.1.5, Saktikulangara, off Kollam, Kerala, India, 250–300 m depth, September 2014, 20 females (CL 9–11 mm), 18 males (CL 10–11 mm).

Diagnosis: Rostrum is short and distinctly cloven microscopically. The carapace is not glabrous bearing minute bristles; carapace carinated with 7 (2 +5) teeth and anteriorly interrupted with hepatic sulcus, lateral carina III armed 1- teeth or tubercles. The branchiostegal spine is largely extended to the middle of the antennal scale and directed anteriolaterally. The antennal spine is small, pterygostomian spine little large and appears at an equal level of the branchiostegal spine. Antennal scale length is longer than the width (1.6 times) with anterio-lateral spine. Pereopod V of spawning females is a simple form. Generally, abdominal segments are sculptured, abdominal tergum I bearing a pair of dorsal spines directed anteriorly, tergum II interrupted with a dorsal spine, while tergum III and IV dorsally sculptured with a box shape, tergum V having two pairs of dorsolateral spines while 3 pairs were present in tergum VI, all the pleura acute ventrally. Telson is equal to uropods.

Coloration: Muddy brown

Remarks: The present specimens agree with the original descriptions and keys by Alcock (1901) and Chan (1996). Even though, the tubercles on the dorsal side of abdomen III are not round, but only appear as a small dot. Few P. affinis affinis individuals were noticed during September to December among the deep sea landings which included Heterocarpus sp. The fecundity was observed as 400- 500 eggs per female (egg size range: 0.5–0.6 mm), which was comparatively lesser than to any other caridean shrimp. Previously, this species was recorded from various locations along the Indian coast ( Bombay, & Bay of Bengal) and Madagascar at depths of 33–175 m ( Sankolli & Shenoy 1979; Chan 1996; Radhakrishnan et al. 2011). But, in the present study it is obtained from Quilon bank at 250–300 m, indicating that P. affinis affinis has a wide depth distribution along the Indian Ocean.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Female specimen of Pontocaris affinis affinis (Alcock, 1901) (A), Dorsal view of carapace (B): Lc I, lateral carina I; Lc II, lateralcarina II; Pc, postrostral carina,Dorsal view of abdominal segments (C), eggs attachingin ventral side of abdomens (D).