Crustacea Decapoda : Studies of the Plesionika narval (Fabricius, 1787) group (Pandalidae) with descriptions of six new species

Abstract

Samples collected by ORSTOM ((Institut de Recherche Scientifique pour le Développement en Coopération), Service Mixte de Contrôle Biologique des Armées (SMCB) and the National Taiwan Ocean University in the Indo-West Pacifie (off Madagascar, Seychelles Islands, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, Chesterfield Islands, New Caledonia and Polynesia) as weil as others obtained on loan from various museums led to a reexaminalion of the species belonging to the Plesionika narval group. Fourteen species are recognized of which 6 are new : P. yui from Taiwan, P. echinicola from New Caledonia, P. laurenJae from New Caledonia and Eastern Australia, P. flavicauda from New Caledonia and Polynesia, P. rubrior and P. curvala from Polynesia. P. escalilis (Stimpson, 1860) is considered to he a synonym of P. narval. The specimens from the Atlantic identified as STIMPSON's species by LEMAITRE and GORE (1988) are identified as P. longicauda (Rathbun, 1901). P. narval and P. serralifrons (Borradaile, 19(0) are considered as distinct species but so similar that finding reliable characters to separate them is very difficult especially as individual variations are observed. P. narval is presently regarded as living only in the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic (from Spain to Cape Verde Islands) but it appears that it may also be widespread in the Indo-West Pacifie. On the other hand P. serratifrons probably occurs only in the South-West Pacifie and with a rather restricted distribution. A key mainly for adults is offered for the identification of the species of this group. As coloration very often seems to he a reliable character for identifying fresh specimens, color photographs are included. Unfortunately it was not possible to obtain information on the coloration of ail the species and consequently this character could only he used rarely in the key.