Upogebia balmaorum, Ngoc-Ho, 1990

Dworschak, Peter C. & Poore, Gary C. B., 2018, More cautionary tales: family, generic and species synonymies of recently published taxa of ghost and mud shrimps (Decapoda: Axiidea and Gebiidea), Zootaxa 4394 (1), pp. 61-76 : 72

Upogebia balmaorum Ngoc-Ho, 1990

( Fig. 6 )

Upogebia balmaorum Ngoc-Ho, 1990: 966–969, figs 1, 2a–d.—Ngoc-Ho 1994: 77, fig. 12a.— Sakai 2006a: 93.— Ngoc-Ho 2008: 141 –143, fig. 5.

Upogebia tractabilis .— Sakai 1982: 16 –17 (part, Madagascar material).— Sakai 1993: 91 (part) [not Upogebia tractabilis Hale, 1941 ].

Kuwaitupogebia nithyanandan Sakai, Türkay & Al Aidaroos, 2015: 1223 –1227, figs 1, 2. Syn. nov.

Material examined. Holotype of Kuwaitupogebia nithyanandan Sakai, Türkay & Al Aidaroos, 2015 , Kuwait, Al- Khiran , SMF 48913 (ovigerous female, 6.3 mm) . Paratypes, same locality, SMF 48914 (4 ovigerous females, 4 females, 5 males) .

Remarks. Sakai et al. (2015a: 1227) repeated their argument yet again in the species discussion, stating that, “The specimens from Kuwait examined are outstandingly different from all known upogebiid species reported up to now, because of the peculiar forms of the eyestalks and the A1, and the absence of the rostrum and of a linea thalassinica. It would be suggested from these morphological features that they are to be determined as a new species, which could not be classified under any genera of the family Upogebiidae . This means that this new species is to be classified under a new genus, and this genus also, in its turn, in a new family in the Thalassinidea, as is established in the present paper.”

The study of the type material showed that: (1) a linea thalassinica is present, clearly visible in the holotype and all paratypes anterior to the cervical groove as in almost all Upogebiidae ( Fig. 6A, B ); (2) the antennules and antennae run parallel as in all other Upogebiidae , the antennules directed downwards (in the holotype and most paratypes), the antenna directed upward (the right flagellum broken off in the holotype) ( Fig. 6B ) or forward. In dorsal view ( Fig. 6A ), the antennules are not visible in most specimens. It appears that K. Sakai interpreted the dense setation on the antenna article 4 as flagella of the antennule. Nothing is unusual with the rostrum—except being very short—or the eyestalks. The rostrum of the holotype is one of the shortest among the specimens ( Fig. 6A, B ); in most paratypes the rostrum is triangular ( Fig. 6C, E ) and may even reach to the end of the cornea ( Fig. 6D ).

Another inaccuracy is that the authors even figured two flagella on the antenna ( Sakai et al. 2015a: fig. 1B). The characteristic prominent proximal spine on the uropodal exopod ( Fig. 6C ; Ngoc-Ho 1990: fig. 1i; Ngoc-Ho 2008: fig. 5G) has been erroneously interpreted as being on the protopod ( Sakai et al. 2015a: fig. 1H).

As observations on the specimens by Sakai et al. (2015a) are mainly based on errors, the genus Kuwaitupogebia and the family Kuwaitupogebiidae lack any justification and are synonymised with Upogebia and Upogebiidae , respectively.

Ngoc-Ho (1990: table 1) compared three species of Upogebia that have a very short rostrum: U. tractabilis Hale, 1941 from South Australia, U. laemanu Ngoc-Ho, 1990 and U. balmaorum Ngoc-Ho, 1990 from the Seychelles, all three often associated with sponges. Both species of Ngoc-Ho were synonymised with U. tractabilis by Sakai (1993) while he considered them distinct later ( Sakai, 2006a). Additional records of U. balmaorum are from Queensland, Australia (Ngoc-Ho, 1994), Madagascar and Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia (Ngoc- Ho, 2008).

With a median groove on the rostrum, four or five lateral teeth on the rostrum, presence of a small ventral spine on the antennal article 1, absence of ventral and carpal spines on pereopod 1, the sexual dimorphism of pereopod 1 and the presence of a proximal spine on the uropodal exopod, the material studied herein shows many of the characters of U. balmaorum and is within its known geographical range. Kuwaitupogebia nithyanandan is therefore synonymised with U. balmaorum .

Figures

FIGURE 6. Upogebia balmaorum Ngoc-Ho, 1990. A, B, C, female holotype of Kuwaitupogebia nithyanandan, SMF 48913; D, male paratype of K. nithyanandan (3.4 mm); E, female paratype of K. nithyanandan (3.6 mm), SMF 48914; A, D, E, front, dorsal aspect; B, front, lateral aspect; C, uropods, arroW points to proXimal spine on eXopod. Scale bar = 1 mm.