Salmoneus shojaei, a new species of mangrove-dwelling alpheid shrimp (Decapoda: Caridea) from Iran

Abstract

During a survey of the mangrove infauna on the Iranian side of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman several specimens of a new alpheid shrimp, Salmoneus shojaei sp. nov., were collected around pneumatophores of mangrove trees, mostly in association with the larger burrowing snapping shrimps of the genus Alpheus Fabricius, 1798. The new species appears to be a member of the S. gracilipes species group and is morphologically closest to S. colinorum De Grave, 2004 and S. alpheophilus Anker & Marin, 2006. However, a unique combination of morphological characters, such as the carapace without rostral carina, the unarmed ischium of the major cheliped, the armed ischia of the minor cheliped and second pereiopod, the very slender dactyli of the fourth and third pereiopods, and the posterior margin of the telson with a deep U-shaped notch, distinguishes the new species from all other members of the S. gracilipes group. In addition, S. shojaei sp. nov. presents a diagnostic, albeit very faint, banding of the pleon, which separates it from most other species of the S. gracilipes group with known colour patterns. A DNA barcode (a partial fragment of the mitochondrial gene, CO1), as well as partial fragments of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA and the nuclear H3 genes, are provided to genetically characterise the new taxon.

A New Species of the Shrimp Genus Salmoneus Holthuis, 1955 (Malacostraca: Decapoda: Alpheidae) from the Exposed Shores of Eastern and Southern Oman

“…obs.). The north-western Indian Ocean is one of the major hotspots of the diversity of Salmoneus, with at least 15 species so far recorded from the coastal areas of the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, Gulf of Oman, and Arabian/Persian Gulf (Coutière 1897 [5], 1899 [6]; Holthuis 1958 [7]; Kazmi 1974 [8]; Banner and Banner 1981 [9]; Ďuriš and Horká, 2016 [10]; Anker 2019a [11], 2022 [2]; Anker and Ashrafi 2019 [12]; Anker et al, 2020 [13]; Ashrafi et al, 2020 [14], 2022 [15]).…”

Salmoneus chelocrassus sp. nov., a New Morphologically Distinctive Species of the Genus Salmoneus Holthuis, 1955 (Decapoda: Caridea: Alpheidae) from Taiwan

“…The type material is deposited in the collection of the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, Pingtung, Taiwan (NMMBA; NMMBCD refers to the collection of Crustacea). The DNA extraction, amplification, and sequencing procedures were conducted as described in Ashrafi et al [20].…”