Richness and large-scale distribution of marine benthic caridean shrimps (Decapoda: Caridea) from the Eastern Tropical Pacific

Abstract

Based on an updated checklist of the benthic caridean shrimp fauna of the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP), we analyzed their large-scale species richness distribution patterns using a grid approximation. Caridean fauna is composed of 183 species belonging to 67 genera and 18 families. Alpheidae, Palaemonidae and Thoridae contributed largely to species richness. Alpheus and Synalpheus were the most diverse genera. Most species (24%) have a narrow distribution inhabiting a single grid, and as many as 135 are restricted to < 5 grids. Mexico has the largest richness (130) besides Ecuador (98) and Panama (75). Richness among grids varies largely; overall, it is larger around Galapagos and Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica and the Gulf of California. There was a meaningful correlation between a proxy of sampling intensity and richness, suggesting that along with habitat heterogeneity or large-scale evolutionary processes currently invoked as richness drivers, the pattern can also be related to differences in research efforts. Exponential fitting and Chao2 index suggest that the caridean faunal inventory from the ETP is still far from being complete. Overall, the results call for a more thoughtful and systematic sampling scheme in order to get information from poorly sampled environments and areas in the ETP.

Continuous Reproduction Causes Stable Population Structure of Antipatharian-Associated Shrimp Sandyella tricornuta (Decapoda: Palaemonidae)

“…Collection of S. tricornuta in the present study and in previous work (Hendrickx 1990, Wicksten and Hernández 2000, Li 2006, Li and Poupin 2009, Marin 2009, 2010, Sánchez 2010, Martínez-Guerrero and López-Pérez 2018Ávila-García et al 2020) was restricted to typical scientific SCUBA diving depth of <40 m (Table 1). Thus, there is no observational evidence that S. tricornuta is actually distributed in deeper waters except for the inference that the host A. galapagensis has been collected up to 200 m depth (Sánchez 2010, Lavorato et al 2021) (Table 1).…”

“…This implies that A. galapagensis is the habitat of a single biological species. All previous studies of Sandyella have focused on taxonomy (Hendrickx 1990, Li 2006, Li and Poupin 2009, Marin 2009, 2010, Ávila-García et al 2020) and distribution range extension (Wicksten and Hernández 2000, Sánchez 2010, Martínez-Guerrero and López-Pérez 2018). However, basic biological and ecological information about reproduction, embryology, larval development, trophic ecology, and population structure of S. tricornuta remain unknown (Ávila-García et al 2020).…”