First Record of the Deep-Sea Shrimp Genus Ephyrina Smith, 1885 (Decapoda, Oplophoridae) from Taiwan, with the Description of a New Subspecies

Abstract

The deep-sea genus Ephyrina Smith, 1885, is reported for the first time from Taiwan. The specimens obtained all belong to one species. The Taiwanese material closely resembles E. figueirai Crosnier & Forest, 1973, in having double rows of lateral spines on each side of the telson, but consistently differs from the nominotypical form from the Atlantic in having a longer and more spinose telson, while also the dorsal depression on abdominal somite VI is slightly more pronounced. Comparison of additional specimens from the Philippines and from Madagascar shows that the West Pacific specimens are nearly identical, but the Madagascan material seems to have characters intermediate between the West Pacific and Atlantic forms. We decided to propose a subspecific status to the West Pacific population, in order to emphasize the slight but constant differences observed in the telson in this obviously allopatric form of the species.