A new mud shrimp of the genus Paragourretia Sakai, 2004, from the Gulf of Mexico (Crustacea: Decapoda: Ctenochelidae).

A new western Atlantic member of the ctenochelid genus Paragourretia Sakai, 2004 is described to accommodate a single unique specimen collected by dredge on muddy rubble substrates of the continental shelf in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. Paragourretia sandrae n. sp. closely resembles Paragourretia biffari (Blanco Rambla & Liñero Arana, 1994), another regionally reported species for which photographs and additional illustrations are herein provided. While P. biffari and P. sandrae n. sp. are similar in habitus and known habitat to the more commonly encountered confamilial Dawsonius latispina (Dawson, 1967), the third maxillipeds in Paragourretia bear distinct exopods that are absent in Dawsonius Manning & Felder, 1991. As in eight other world congeners, P. sandrae n. sp. differs from both P. biffari and Dawsonius in lacking triangular ventrolateral projections on the sixth pleomere. It is further distinguished from P. biffari by lacking a distinctly incised notch in the anterodistal margin of the uropodal exopod and by absence of a median terminal spine on the telson. Additional sequence-quality specimens of P. sandrae n. sp. are required to clarify its relationships within the polyphyletic genus Paragourretia on a molecular genetic basis.

More cautionary tales: family, generic and species synonymies of recently published taxa of ghost and mud shrimps (Decapoda: Axiidea and Gebiidea).

Re-examination of the holotype of Neoaxius nicoyaensis Sakai, 2017 showed that it is conspecific with the axiid Guyanacaris caespitosa Squires, 1979 and thus Neoaxius Sakai, 2017 and Neoaxiidae Sakai, 2017 are respectively subjective junior synonyms of Guyanacaris Sakai, 2011 and Axiidae Huxley, 1879. The types and numerous specimens of the callianassid Trypaea vilavelebita Sakai Türkay, 2012 are juveniles of the common northeastern Atlantic-Mediterranean species, Callianassa subterranea (Montagu, 1808); the name is therefore a subjective junior synonym. The monotypic callianopsid genera Pleurocalliax Sakai, 2011, Neocallianopsis Sakai, 2011 and Phaetoncalliax Sakai, Türkay, Beuck Freiwald, 2015 are found not to differ from Callianopsis de Saint Laurent, 1973, the only alleged differences found to be untrue or trivial. Phaetoncalliax mauritana Sakai, Türkay, Beuck Freiwald, 2015 and Neocallianopsis africana Sakai, Türkay, Beuck Freiwald, 2015 are thereby transferred to Callianopsis, the latter a subjective junior synonym of the former. Contrary to the assertion of its author, the gourretiid Pseudogourretia portsudanensis Sakai, 2005, the only species in its genus, has no pleurobranchs. The genus Pseudogourretia Sakai, 2005 is therefore synonymised with Gourretia de Saint Laurent, 1973. The respective holotypes of Paracalliax stenophthalmus Sakai, Türkay, Beuck Freiwald, 2015 and Paracalliax bollorei de Saint Laurent, 1979 were re-examined. Both are from the Banc d'Arguin, off Mauritania, and are identical at the species level. The upogebiid Kuwaitupogebia nithyanandan Sakai, Türkay Al Aidaroos, 2015 from Kuwait is identical to Upogebia balmaorum Ngoc-Ho, 1990 from the Seychelles, Madagascar and tropical Western Australia. Kuwaitupogebia Sakai, Türkay Al Aidaroos, 2015 is therefore synonymised with Upogebia Leach, 1814 and Kuwaitupogebiidae Sakai, Türkay Al Aidaroos, 2015 with Upogebiidae Borradaile, 1903.

Comments on two questionably new axiidean taxa from the Gulf of Mexico (Crustacea: Decapoda).

A recent descriptive account based on material in the Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum included descriptions of two new fossorial axiidean shrimp from the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. Both were based on fragmentary immature specimens, and the accompanying illustrations appeared to potentially represent known species. The types were obtained on loan for study in each of our labs. In one case we conclude that erroneous interpretations of a mangled immature specimen of Axianassa arenaria Kensley & Heard, 1990, led to its assignment to the wrong infraorder, and thus its erroneous description as a new genus and species. In the second case, misinterpretations of morphology of four fragmentary juvenile specimens led to assignment of a name for a population already known in literature to be separated genetically and developmentally from Atlantic populations of Callichirus major (Say, 1818) and Gulf of Mexico populations of C. islagrande (Schmitt, 1935). While no diagnostic characters of value were furnished with the description, we nonetheless conclude that the new name must be used.

Oceanic dispersal barriers, adaptation and larval retention: an interdisciplinary assessment of potential factors maintaining a phylogeographic break between sister lineages of an African prawn.

BACKGROUND: Genetic breaks separating regional lineages of marine organisms with potentially high broadcasting abilities are generally attributed either to dispersal barriers such as currents or upwelling, or to behavioural strategies promoting self-recruitment. We investigated whether such patterns could potentially also be explained by adaptations to different environmental conditions by studying two morphologically distinguishable genetic lineages of the estuarine mudprawn Upogebia africana across a biogeographic disjunction in south-eastern Africa. The study area encompasses a transition between temperate and subtropical biotas, where the warm, southward-flowing Agulhas Current is deflected away from the coast, and its inshore edge is characterised by intermittent upwelling. To determine how this phylogeographic break is maintained, we estimated gene flow among populations in the region, tested for isolation by distance as an indication of larval retention, and reared larvae of the temperate and subtropical lineages at a range of different temperatures. RESULTS: Of four populations sampled, the two northernmost exclusively included the subtropical lineage, a central population had a mixture of both lineages, and the southernmost estuary had only haplotypes of the temperate lineage. No evidence was found for isolation by distance, and gene flow was bidirectional and of similar magnitude among adjacent populations. In both lineages, the optimum temperature for larval development was at about 23 degrees C, but a clear difference was found at lower temperatures. While larvae of the temperate lineage could complete development at temperatures as low as 12 degrees C, those of the subtropical lineage did not complete development below 17 degrees C. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that both southward dispersal of the subtropical lineage inshore of the Agulhas Current, and its establishment in the temperate province, may be limited primarily by low water temperatures. There is no evidence that the larvae of the temperate lineage would survive less well in the subtropical province than in their native habitat, and their exclusion from this region may be due to a combination of upwelling, short larval duration with limited dispersal potential near the coast, plus transport away from the coast of larvae that become entrained in the Agulhas Current. This study shows how methods from different fields of research (genetics, physiology, oceanography and morphology) can be combined to study phylogeographic patterns.