Abstract
This contribution reviews the morphology and the main diagnostic characters of the peppermint shrimp Lysmata ankeri. Individuals were sampled by scuba divers from August 2008 to June 2013 on the subtidal rocky bottom at Couves Island, on the coast of Sao Paulo State, Brazil. In the laboratory, the individuals were analyzed morphologically, with emphasis on the characters used in the diagnosis of the species; measured as carapace length (CL); and photographed. Seventeen individuals of L. ankeri were analyzed with an average size of 6.9 ± 2.0 mm CL. From the morphological analysis the following variations of the diagnosis were observed: five teeth on the dorsal margin of the rostrum, in the diagnosis this was 6-8; five spines on the flexor margin of the dactyli of pereiopods 2-4, in the diagnosis this was 3-4. The records of this study extend the knowledge of the variation of some morphological characteristics for this species, resulting in an overlap among the species of the Lysmata wurdemanni complex.
Highlights
The genus Lysmata can be distinguished from other genera by its moderately slender body, a long and thickened second pereiopod with a multi-articulated carpus, the rostrum armed with teeth on both dorsal and ventral margins, the welldeveloped arthrobranchs and exopods on the third maxilliped and the absence of a supraorbital spine (Abele and Kim, 1986; Holthuis, 1993; Chace, 1997)
Other shrimps of the Lysmata wurdemanni complex live in groups, such as L. wurdemanni, Lysmata boggessi, Lysmata bahia and Lysmata udoi
Among the characters that support this identification we can mention: 1) rostrum rarely reaching the end of third segment of antennular peduncle; 2) number of teeth in the ventral margin of rostrum; 3) number of spines in the merus of the fifth pereiopod; 4) number of segments in the carpus of the second pereiopod; 5) color pattern; 6) ecological remarks
Summary
The genus Lysmata Risso, 1816, belongs to the family Hippolytidae Spence Bate, 1888 (sensu Chace, 1997) and contains about 40 described species (Chace, 1997; Rhyne and Lin, 2006; Rhyne and Anker, 2007; Baeza and Anker, 2008; Anker et al, 2009; De Grave and Fransen, 2011), of which at least 12 species occur in the western Atlantic (Chace, 1972; Rhyne and Lin, 2006). The genus Lysmata can be distinguished from other genera by its moderately slender body, a long and thickened second pereiopod with a multi-articulated carpus, the rostrum armed with teeth on both dorsal and ventral margins, the welldeveloped arthrobranchs and exopods on the third maxilliped and the absence of a supraorbital spine (Abele and Kim, 1986; Holthuis, 1993; Chace, 1997) These shrimps can display different and, in some cases, striking color patterns, which can be used for species identification, such as Lysmata amboinensis (De Man, 1888) and Lysmata grabhami (Gordon, 1935) (Lin, 2004). Differences can be subtle; for example, the species belonging to the Lysmata wurdemanni complex (Gibbes, 1850), which have a color pattern consisting of semitranslucent bodies with longitudinal and lateral red bands (Rhyne and Lin, 2006)
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