Ctenocheloides attenboroughi n. gen., n. sp. (Crustacea: Decapoda: Axiidea: Ctenochelidae), a new ghost shrimp with pectinate claw fingers from Madagascar

Abstract

Ctenocheloides, n. gen., is established for a remarkable new species of ctenochelid ghost shrimp, Ctenocheloides attenboroughi, n. gen., n. sp., named after the British naturalist and presenter of numerous BBC nature documentaries, Sir David Attenborough. The holotype, a complete adult female, is presently the only specimen known. It was extracted from a large, mud-cemented piece of rubble collected at a depth of 1.5 m in a mangrove-fringed bay east of Helville, Nosy-Bé, in northwestern Madagascar. Ctenocheloides, n. gen. differs from Ctenocheles, the presumably closest relative and the only other axiidean genus with pectinate cheliped fingers, by the absence of a projecting rostrum, the well-developed corneas, and the shorter and less robust fingers of the major cheliped.

Keywords:

• Decapoda
• Axiidea
• Ctenochelidae
• ghost shrimp
• new genus
• new species
• Madagascar
• Indian Ocean
• pectinate fingers

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Gustav Paulay (FLMNH) and Henrich Bruggemann (Université de la Réunion, Saint-Denis, La Réunion) for the invitation to participate in the BIOTAS survey in Nosy-Bé, Madagascar, in May 2008. The BIOTAS is a programme funded by the Agence National de Recherche (ANR), France, and supported by the Centre National de Recherche sur l'Environnement (CNRE) of the Republic of Madagascar. Peter Dworschak (Naturhistorisches Museum in Wien, Vienna, Austria) and Darryl L. Felder (University of Louisiana, Lafayette, USA) made useful remarks on the drawings. Derek Cox (University of Florida undergraduate student and volunteer at the FLMNH) helped preparing some drawings. The author is also grateful to Gisèle Norosoa Bakary, Jacques Philippe and other staff of the Centre National de Recherche Océanographique (CNRO) in Nosy-Bé for their assistance and hospitality.