A New Species of Mud-shrimp of the Genus Upogebia Leach, 1814 fromTaiwan (Decapoda: Thalassinidea: Upogebiidae)

Abstract

To whom correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed. Mud shrimps of the family Upogebiidae Borradaile, 1903, were very poorly known from Tai- wan until recently. At present, 4 Upogebia species have been reported: U. wuhsienweni Yu, 1931; U. narutensis Sakai, 1986; U. edulis Ngoc-Ho and Chan, 1992; and U. takaoensis Sakai and Türkay, 1995. The former 3 species are commonly found in intertidal mud flat areas in western Taiwan while the latter is very rare, known only from a single holotype from southern Taiwan (Sakai and Türkay 1995). A small specimen recently obtained from the by- catch of a deep-sea trawler operating off the coast of southern Taiwan appears to belong to a new species of Upogebia. Its description is presented herein. This specimen differs from the aforementioned Tai- wanese Upogebia species especially by having no large lateral frontal process on the carapace and by its much more slender body. It is compared to its close relatives, U. fallax de Man, 1905; U. contigua Bozic and de Saint Laurent, 1972; and U. gracilis Ngoc-Ho, 1990, whose differentiating characters are summarized in table 1. Color photographs of the newly collected specimen are provided. The specimen is deposited at the National Tai- wan Ocean University, Keelung (NTOU). Carapace length (cl) is measured dorsally from the tip of the rostrum to the posterior margin of the carapace, and total length (tl) is measured dorsally from the tip of the rostrum to the posterior margin of the telson.