Shrimps of the genus Periclimenes (Crustacea, Decapoda, Palaemonidae) associated with mushroom corals (Scleractinia, Fungiidae): linking DNA barcodes to morphology

Abstract

Most marine palaemonid shrimp species live in symbiosis with invertebrates of various phyla. These associations range from weak epibiosis to obligatory endosymbiosis and from restricted commensalism to semi-parasitism. On coral reefs, such symbiotic shrimps can contribute to the associated biodiversity of reef corals. Among the host taxa, mushroom corals (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Fungiidae) are known to harbour various groups of symbionts, including shrimps. Some but not all of these associated species are host-specific. Because data on the host specificity of shrimps on mushroom corals are scarce, shrimp species of the genus Periclimenes were collected from mushroom corals during fieldwork in Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Using molecular (COI barcoding gene) and morphological methods, three species of Periclimenes were identified: P. diversipes, P. watamuae and a species new to science, P. subcorallum sp. nov., described herein. Their host specificity was variable, with eight, three and two fungiid host records, respectively. It is concluded that shrimp species of the genus Periclimenes show much overlap in their host choice and that particular morphological traits in the host species appear to play a more important role than phylogenetic affinities within the host group.

Polka-dotted treasures: Revising a clade of ascidian- and bivalve-associated shrimps (Caridea: Palaemonidae)

“…The presence of minutely pectinate cutting edges of spatulate to subspatulate first chelipeds is considered to be a definitive character for the studied ingroup genera (e.g., Bruce, 1995;Fransen & Van der Meij, 2010), but was also found in the related outgroup species Lipkemenes, Zenopontonia, Actinimenes and both Periclimenes colemani and P. kempi (supplementary appendix S1, supplementary table S2). A quick investigation also proves that Sandimenes and various members of Periclimenes and Allopontonia (which were proven to be somewhat related to the currently studied ingroup by Chow et al, 2021) also have subspatulate first chelipeds, although the associated minutely pectinate cutting edges cannot be seen in the published illustrations (Bruce, 1971(Bruce, , 1972b(Bruce, , 1995(Bruce, , 2010bLi, 2009;Rauch et al, 2019), except for the illustrations of P. josephi, which show "a distal row of pectinate short setae" (Li, 2008b). Closer examination of collection material is needed in order to see if minutely pectinate cutting edges are also present in related ectosymbiotic species.…”

Ecomorphological convergence in the walking leg dactyli of two clades of ascidian‐ and mollusc‐associated shrimps (Decapoda: Caridea: Palaemonidae)

“…In addition, so‐called ‘inquilinistic or inquiline forms’ of palaemonid shrimps have evolved to share a burrow with pistol shrimps (Caridea: Alpheidae), opisthognath fish or echiurids (Frolová et al., 2022 ). This above‐mentioned host range is presumably an incomplete record, as many other symbiotic interactions have not been identified yet, and more associations are still being discovered (Anker & De Grave, 2021 ; de Gier & Fransen, 2018 ; Fransen et al., 2021 , 2022 ; Komai et al., 2023 ; Rauch et al., 2019 ). Several studies have demonstrated interphylum host switching to be important in the past diversification of the family (Davis et al., 2018 ; Gan et al., 2015 ; Horká et al., 2016 , 2018 ; Kou et al., 2013 , 2015 ).…”

Habitat Use of Two Coral-Associated Cryptobenthic Gobiid Fishes (Family: Gobiidae) in the Southern Caribbean

“…Corals contribute to coral reef biodiversity both by their own species numbers and by acting as hosts for a variety of associated animals [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. They provide a habitat for various invertebrates, such as barnacles [11], copepods [12,13], crabs [11,14], shrimps [15][16][17], gastropods [18][19][20][21][22], bivalves [23], hydrozoans [24], acoel flatworms [25], and polycheate worms [26][27][28]. Additionally, they provide a habitat for various fishes, such as blennies [29,30], cardinalfishes [31], damselfishes [32,33], gobies [34][35][36][37], labrids [38], and pipefishes [39,40].…”