Callichirus garthi is a valid species, distinct from C. seilacheri (Decapoda: Axiidea: Callianassidae)

Abstract

Callichirus garthi from the southeastern Pacific has long been considered as a junior synonym of Callichirus seilacheri from the eastern tropical Pacific. The present study is based on a detailed comparison between both taxa collected along the coast of Chile and the Pacific coast of Central America, including type material of C. garthi and topotypic material of C. garthi and C. seilacheri. This reveals that C. garthi is a valid species, with a suite of morphological features that allow it to be separated from C. seilacheri. Callichirus garthi can primarily be distinguished from C. seilacheri by closely set eyestalks; the proximal margin of the terminal antennular segment exceeding the proximal margin of the last antennal segment with the dorsal margins of both the basal and intermediate antennular segment setose; the merus of the larger cheliped armed with a rough semicircular lobe over the anterior ventral margin and the ischium curved downwards without ornamentation on the ventral margin. On the basis of the present study, we therefore resurrect C. garthi as a valid species for the Chilean and Peruvian populations.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:6FB68C22-5C87-4331-8FCA-CC8994034F3C

Key words:

• Callianassidae
• Callichirus
• Eastern Pacific
• ghost shrimps
• morphological comparison

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the members of the Gamboa-González family for providing a space where we analysed the biological material collected in Costa Rica. Also, we want to thank Alberto González and Johanna Segovia for their hospitality during our trip to Playa Los Blancos, El Salvador. We appreciate the comments made by three anonymous reviewers and the editor from the zoology section, Dr Matz Berggren, which substantially improved the present manuscript. Part of the material described herein was collected during the project entitled ‘Diversity of intertidal ghost shrimps (Axiidea, Callianassidae) from Pacific coast of Costa Rica’, which was realized thanks to logistic support from Culex Environmental and the IdeaWild Foundation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The first author thanks CAPES-Brazil (2010–2012) and CONICYT-Chile (2012–2013) for his doctoral fellowship. The second author thanks the University of Costa Rica for support in the form of an undergraduate fellowship.