First record of the caridean shrimp genus Bresilia Calman, 1896 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Bresiliidae) from the East Pacific and description of a new species.

Abstract

A new species of Bresilia Calman, 1896, representing the first record of this genus for the East Pacific, is described from deep water off the Pacific coast of Mexico. The new species is close to B. atlantica Calman, 1896, the type species of the genus with which it shares the general shape of the carapace and rostrum, the latter with a reduced number of small dorsal teeth, and the shape and relative size of the first pereiopod. It also shares with B. atlantica a similar antennular peduncle and a distally very wide scaphocerite. The first maxilliped has a long crescent-shaped exopod, without a flagellum and a strongly reduced caridean lobe, two characters found in B. atlantica and in only one other known species of Bresilia, i.e., B. corsicana Forest & Cals, 1977. The new species can be distinguished from the other seven species of Bresilia by the armature of the rostrum (few, very small spines) and a much wider scaphocerite, with an anterior margin twice as wide as the proximal margin.