Integrative Taxonomy of New Zealand Stenopodidea (Crustacea: Decapoda) with New Species and Records for the Region

Kareen E Schnabel,Qi Kou,Peng Xu

doi:10.3390/d13080343

Abstract

The New Zealand fauna of the crustacean infraorder Stenopodidea, the coral and sponge shrimps, is reviewed using both classical taxonomic and molecular tools. In addition to the three species so far recorded in the region, we report Spongicola goyi for the first time, and formally describe three new species of Spongicolidae. Following the morphological review and DNA sequencing of type specimens, we propose the synonymy of Spongiocaris yaldwyni with S. neocaledonensis and review a proposed broad Indo-West Pacific distribution range of Spongicoloides novaezelandiae. New records for the latter at nearly 54° South on the Macquarie Ridge provide the southernmost record for stenopodidean shrimp known to date.

Highlights

The unique group of coral shrimp and Venus or sponge shrimp, united in the infraorder Stenopodidea Spence Bate, 1888 [1], is a small group of marine decapod crustaceans with 92 species, 13 genera and three families currently recognized [2]
Comparative morphology and molecular phylogenetics more recently called for internal taxonomic revisions, e.g., a molecular phylogeny provided by Chen et al [17] refuted both the family and genus level classification and the authors suggested to unite all species in a single family Stenopodidae
The intra-generic genetic divergences ranged from 3.8% to 16.8%

Summary

Introduction

The unique group of coral shrimp and Venus or sponge shrimp, united in the infraorder Stenopodidea Spence Bate, 1888 [1], is a small group of marine decapod crustaceans with 92 species, 13 genera and three families currently recognized [2]. The internal classification remains in flux with a recently erected family [7], four new genera [7,8,9,10] and over one-third of the current species diversity described since 2006, e.g., [11,12,13,14]. Comparative morphology and molecular phylogenetics more recently called for internal taxonomic revisions, e.g., a molecular phylogeny provided by Chen et al [17] refuted both the family and genus level classification and the authors suggested to unite all species in a single family Stenopodidae. Work is underway to increase taxon sampling and to settle the classification for this group by e.g., Kou and Goy with colleagues (unpubl.)

Methods

Results

Conclusion