Showing posts with label Pontoniine Shrimps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pontoniine Shrimps. Show all posts

Sunday, 4 September 2016

Philarius venustus: A new species of Palaemonid Shrimp from Hainan Island, China.

Palaemonid Shrimps are one of the most numerous and diverse of the Decapod Shrimp groups. The family is split into two subfamilies, the free-living Palaemoninae, which are active carnivores found in almost all marine environments, and the Pontoniinae, which form a variety of associations with other invertebrates, living on Sponges, Cnidarians, Molluscs and Echinoderms as Cleaner Shrimps, parasites, or commensals.

In a paper published in the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology on 26 August 2016, Qi Kou and Xinzheng Li of the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, describe a new species of Palaemonid Shrimp from off the coast of Houhai Beach on Hainan Island.

The new species is paced in the genus Philarius, which contains a number of Coral-dwelling species, and given the specific name venustus, meaning elegant, in reference to the pale, hairless body of the Shrimp. The species is described from a single male specimen. pale in colour and 9.2 mm in length collected from an unidentified slender-branched Scleractinian Stony Coral of the genus Acropora found growing at a depth of 2-8 m.

Male specimen of Philarius venustus. Yueyun Wang in Kou & Li (2016).

See also...

Ghost Shrimps from the Oligocene and Miocene of Central Europe.                       Ghost Shrimps (Callianassidae) are Decapod Crustaceans noted for the large, complex burrows they build. They excavate their burrow systems in intertidal or shallow subtidal waters in the tropics and...

http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/a-new-species-of-cleaner-shrimp-from.htmlA new species of Cleaner Shrimp from the western Atlantic.                                       Cleaner Shrimps (Stenopodidea) are Decapod Crustaceans more closely related to Crabs and Lobsters than true Shrimps (Caridea). They are a small group, with 71 known extant species and to known fossil species from the Late Cretaceous. They are...
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/a-new-species-of-sponge-dwelling.htmlA new species of Sponge dwelling Pontoniine Shrimp from Sabah State, Malaysia.                                          The Pontoniine Shrimps are an unusual group of Decapod Crustaceans (the group that also includes Crabs, Lobsters and most 'Shrimps') noted for...
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Friday, 20 December 2013

A new species of Sponge dwelling Pontoniine Shrimp from Sabah State, Malaysia.

The Pontoniine Shrimps are an unusual group of Decapod Crustaceans (the group that also includes Crabs, Lobsters and most 'Shrimps') noted for their tendency to form commensal relationships with other invertebrates. Species are known which have such relationships with Sponges, Corals, Jellyfish, Hydrozoans, Siphonophores, Soft Corals, Snails, Clams, Starfish, Brittlestars, Crinoids, Sea Urchins, Sea Cucumbers and Sea Squirts. They are found in all tropical and sub-tropical marine waters, but are at their most abundant and diverse in the waters of the tropical Indian and western Pacific Oceans.

In a paper published in the journal Zootaxa on 6 August 2013, Charles Fransen of the Department of Marine Zoology at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden describes a new species of Sponge dwelling Pontoniine Shrimp from Sabah State, Malaysia.

The new species is placed in the genus Nippontonia, which previously contained only a single species, the Sponge-dwelling Nippontonia minirostris from the Japanese Ryukyu Islands and Taiwan. The new species is named Nippontonia christellae, in honour of the author's sister-in-law, Christel van Eijnatten, for her 'inspiring perseverance and positivism in conquering life again after it was almost taken from
her'. 

Nippontonia christellae is ~10 mm Shrimp, translucent and dotted with brown or green chromatophores (coloured cells). It was found living inside the Sponge Acanthostrongylophora ingens, and another unknown black Sponge at a depths of 10-15 m off the coast of Ligitan Island in the Celebes Sea off the east coast of Sabah State Malaysia (i.e. northern Borneo).

Nippontonia christellae, (top) female carrying eggs inside the Sponge Acanthostrongylophora ingens, and (bottom) line drawing of the same. Scale bar is 4 mm. Fransen (2013).

The approximate location of Ligitan Island, where Nippontonia christellae was discovered. Google Maps.


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