A New Species of Crangonid Shrimp of the Genus Philocheras (Crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea) from Hawai'i

Abstract

Philocheras breviflagella, a new species of crangonid shrimp, is described and illustrated on the basis of a single ovigerous female collected from O'ahu, Hawai'i, at subtidal depth. The new species is most similar to P. sabsechota (Kemp, 1911) known with certainty only from the Andaman Islands, eastern Indian Ocean. It differs from P. sabsechota in several features, including the much narrower rostrum, the unarmed second lateral carina of the carapace, and the truncate posterior margin of the uropodal exopod. Other differences include the shorter fingers (each with an elongate unguis) of the second pereopod, and medially notched posterodorsal margins of the second and fourth abdominal somites. The new species is the first representative of the genus found to occur in the central Pacific.