Abstract
Examination of collections from waters around New Zealand resulted in significant findings of six species of Metacrangon Zarenkov, Citation1965, a crangonid shrimp genus well represented in the North Pacific: M. knoxi (Yaldwyn, Citation1960); M. richardsoni (Yaldwyn, Citation1960); M. hikurangi sp. nov.; M. haona sp. nov.; M. rau sp. nov.; and M. teina sp. nov. The present material includes the second record of the two previously described species since their original descriptions. The four new species are all closely related to M. knoxi, suggesting a monophyletic origin of these five species. Differentiating characters among the four new species and M. knoxi are discussed in detail. All six species are known only from New Zealand waters, and they are probably endemic to the area.
Acknowledgements
S.T.A. gratefully acknowledges support from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FRST) (contract C01X0502) and the NIWA Capability Fund. We are also grateful to Kareen Schnabel (NIWA) and Rick Webber (MNZ) for access to the collections under their care. Most specimens were collected by NIWA under various research programmes, most notably “Seamounts: their importance to fisheries and marine ecosystems” (FRST contracts C01X0028, C01X0224), “New Zeeps 06” (cruise TAN0616), “New Vents” (cruise SO191-3, German Federal Ministry for Education and Research), and Oceans Survey 2020 jointly funded by NIWA, the Department of Conservation, Land Information New Zealand, and the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries (ZBD200701).