Abstract
The Galapagos Slipper lobster, Scyllarides astori, has been reported from rocky reefs along the Eastern Tropical Pacific: the Gulf of California, the Galapagos Archipelago and mainland Ecuador. Although larval stage S. astori has been found in other localities throughout this range, there are no records of adults inhabiting waters between these three locations. Here we present the first record of an adult S. astori from Isla del Coco and Costa Rican Pacific waters. The single specimen, a male, was hand-collected within a coral reef in Pajara islet. This finding increases the reported lobster species richness of Costa Rican Pacific waters to six species and expands the adult geographic range of S. astori to Isla del Coco.
Highlights
Marine lobsters are a highly diverse group that includes six families, 55 genera, and 248 species that occupy a wide range of habitats and are distributed worldwide (Chan 2014; Briones-Fourzán and Lozano-Álvarez 2015)
There are no scientific reports of adult S. astori from inshore waters of Costa Rica nor Isla del Coco (Vargas and Wehrtmann 2008; Vargas and Wehrtmann 2009; Cortés 2012)
A phyllosoma larva of S. astori has been recorded off Isla del Coco at 5°16′N; 87°57′W (Johnson 1970)
Summary
Marine lobsters are a highly diverse group that includes six families, 55 genera, and 248 species that occupy a wide range of habitats and are distributed worldwide (Chan 2014; Briones-Fourzán and Lozano-Álvarez 2015). The Shield Fan Lobster (E. princeps) is distributed along the Pacific coast from the Gulf of California to Peru (Johnson 1975b; Holthuis 1985; Hendrickx 1995), while S. astori has been reported in the Gulf of California, the Galapagos Archipelago, nearby Clipperton atoll and mainland Ecuador (Holthuis and Loesch 1967; Holthuis 1991; Hendrickx 1995; Béarez and Hendrickx 2006; Butler et al 2013) These two species are caught incidentally in spiny lobster fisheries. They are not exploited for exportation, they are commercially important to local fisheries (Holthuis 1991)
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