Heteromysoides (Crustacea: Mysidacea: Heteromysini) from a submarine cave on Grand Cayman, the Caribbean Sea: descriptions of a new and a rare species

Abstract

During a recent biological investigation of submarine caves of Grand Cayman, the Caribbean Sea, two species of Heteromysoides were collected. One species, referred to Heteromysoides spongicola Băcescu, 1968, is known only by the type specimens; therefore, this discovery marks the second record of occurrence and a new habitat record for the species. The other species is considered new and is described as H. stenoura, a 10th species of the genus. The new species closely resembles H. simplex Hanamura and Kase, 2001, known from the submarine caves of Okinawa, north-western Pacific, in the possession of a spiniform process on the eyes and a simple termination to the third thoracic endopod. However, the new species can be readily distinguished from the Pacific congener by a distally narrow telson and a more developed cornea in the eyes.