Estación Mazatlán, ICML, UNAM.  P. O. Box. 811, Mazatlán, Sinaloa, 82000.  México.
 

Received   14-IV-2000.   Corrected  10-VI-2000.   Accepted   19-IX-2000

Key words:   New records, Crustacea, Decapoda, eastern tropical Pacific.

Sampling along the Pacific coast of Mexico, from 1981 to March 2000, allow to report several new distribution, size and habitats records for nine species of decapod crustaceans.

Abbreviation used in this note are:  CL, carapace length; CW, carapace width; St. Sampling station; EMU- Estacion Mazatlan UNAM, catalog number; Col., Colector.

Dendrobranchiata Bate, 1888
Penaeoidea Rafinesque, 1815 ]]> Solenoceridae Wood-Mason, 1891

Previous records and habitat:  Solenocera mutator has been recorded widelyin bottom trawls from 26 to 427 m depth in the eastern tropical Pacific, on  a wide variety of substrates (sand, silty-sand, silt and clay), but with a clear affinity for fine and very fine sand (Hendrickx 1996). It is one of the three species of the genus known for the east Pacific.

New record:  St. 63, CORTES 1 cruise (21º56.3’ N – 106º12.5’ W), 5 males (C.L. 6.6 – 9.4 mm) and 5 females (C.L. 6.5 – 8.6 mm), all pre-mature, in zooplankton sample taken at 50 m deep, 15 m above bottom (EMU-5322).

Remark:  Considered a benthic species, present record indicates that pre-mature and maybe juveniles occurs at a considerable distance from bottom, as part of the bathypelagic fauna.

Pleocyemata Burkenroad, 1963
Caridea Dana, 1852
Alpheidae Rafinesque, 1815
Automate rugosa Coutière, 1900

Previous records:  Cedros Island, Baja California to Point Piaxtla, Sinaloa, Mexico; Panamá (Wicksten & Hendrickx 1992). ]]> New record:  Off Estero Tastiota, Sonora, Mexico, CORTES 1 cruise, St. 48 (28º13’ N – 111º28’ W), 54 m, 11/V/1982 (EMU-5324).

Remarks:  This specimen (4.5 mm C.L.) was caught with a Van Veen dredge. Environmental data indicate low dissolved oxygen concentration (2.5 ml/l) and water temperature of 16.4 ºC.

Salmoneus serratidigitus Coutière, 1896

Previous records:  Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico (Wicksten and Hendrickx 1992).

New record:  Off Teacapan, St. A2, SIPCO I cruise (22º17’ N – 106º10’ W), 61-62 m, sandy-mud bottom, 23/IV/1981 (EMU-5193).

Remarks:  This large specimen (17.0 mm CL) was caught in an experimental shrimp trawl. Environmental data indicate very low dissolved oxygen concentration (0.44 ml/l) and water temperature of 14.5 ºC.

Palaemonidae Rafinesque, 1815

Previous records:  Santa Catalina Island and San Pedro Harbor, California, USA; Magdalena Bay, Baja California Sur, Mexico; El Desemboque, Sonora, Gulf of California, to La Plata Island, Ecuador; Galapagos Islands (Wicksten and Hendrickx 1992).

New record:  Off Cabo San Miguel, CORTES 1 cruise, St. 19 (28º09’ N – 112º46’ W), 28 specimens (C.L. 1.6 – 3.6 mm), including 11 ovigerous female (2.4 – 3.6 mm), 06/V/1982, 30-35 m, in dredge, sandy bottom (medium sand) (EMU-4648). ]]> Anomura H. Milne Edwards, 1832
Porcellanidae Haworth, 1825
Pachycheles chacei Haig, 1956

Previous record:  San José, Guatemala to Santa Elena Bay, “Velero III”, St. 18-33 (Hendrickx and Harvey 1999).

New record:  Punta Raza, Rincon de Guayabitos, Nayarit, one female, 11/IV/2000, intertidal among rocks and algae (EMU-5206).

Brachyura Latreille, 1802
Epialtidae MacLeay, 1838
Eupleurodon peruvianus  (Rathbun, 1923)

Previous geographic and size records:  Santa Catalina Island and Punta Piaxtla, Sinaloa, Mexico; Salinas, Ecuador to Iquique, Chile (Hendrickx 1999).

Additional records:  Punta Raza (20º52’ N – 105º19’ W), Rincón de Guayabitos, Nayarit, one male (C.W. 4.9 mm), 11/IV/1996 (EMU-4652); same locality, 2 females (C.W. 4.3 and 4.9 mm), 19/II/2000, intertidal among algae (EMU-5302), Male 5.37, Female ovig. 4.48 mm, Sayulita, Nayarit 10/IV/1996 (EMU-4220). ]]> Remarks:  Up to 1989 this species was known only south of Ecuador (Villalobos-Hiriart et al.  1989). Two successive records in the Gulf of California (Villalobos-Hiriart et al.  op. cit., Hendrickx, et al.  1990) and the present series of specimens obtained in the SE extremity of the Gulf indicate that E. peruvianus is a rather common species in the Cortés Province of the Eastern tropical Pacific.

Mithracidae Balss, 1929
Mithrax armatus de Saussure, 1853

Previous records:  From Los Frailes and Piaxtla Point, southern part of the Gulf of California, to Panama (Hendrickx 1999)

New record:  Caleta Venecia (28º07'52''N-111º17'45''W), near Guaymas, Sonora,

rocky pool, 1 M (CW 55.5mm) and 1 F (CW 60.0mm), 3 m, 27/IX/1981 (Col. L.T. Findley and party) (EMU-5331).

Remarks:  This large species of Mithracidae is usually found in the low intertidal or deeper (to 23 m) and is surprisingly seldom reported in literature, although it ranges from Mexico to Panama.

Xanthidae MacLeay, 1838
Glyptoxanthus meandricus (Lockington, 1877)

Previous size record:  Up to 35 mm CW (Brusca, 1980). ]]> New size record:  Caleta Venecia (28º07'52''N-111º17'45''W), near Guaymas, Sonora, rocky pool, 1 M (CW 45.5mm) and 1 F (CW 60.0mm), 3 m, 27/IX/1981 (Col. L.T. Findley and party) (EMU-5330).

Panopeus chilensis  H. Milne Edwards & Lucas, 1844

Material examined:  Agua Brava coastal lagoon, Nayarit (22º10.9’N – 105º36.44‘W), one male (C.W. 19.5 mm) and one female (C.W. 13.3 mm) in Halichondridae sponge collected on Rhizophora roots, 28/II/2000 (EMU-5321) (Col. J. Salgado B.).

Remarks:  This large species of Panopeus (the largest in the east tropical Pacific) is mostly found on muddy bottom, among or close to mangrove in estuaries and coastal lagoons. Present record of a relatively small set of specimens in sponges is supposed to be the first of its kind.  Sponges are probably used only as shelters by stressed specimens.

Acknowledgements

The author thanks all students and scientists who participated in the sampling activities aboard ships and in the intertidal. Lloyd T. Findley generousely provided the material collected in Caleta Venecia, Sonora, and Jose Luis Carvallo identified the sponge. Manuscript was edited by Mercedes Cordero R.

Literature cited

Brusca, R.C. 1980. Common intertidal invertebrates of the Gulf of California. 2 ed. The Univ. Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. 513 p.

Hendrickx, M.E. 1996. Los camarones Penaeoidea bentónicos (Crustacea: Decapoda: Dendrobranchiata) del Pacífico mexicano. Comisión Nacional para el Uso y la Biodiversidad e Inst. Cienc. del Mar y Limnol. UNAM. México. 148 p.

Hendrickx, M.E. 1999. Los cangrejos braquiuros (Crustacea: Brachyura: Majoidea y Parthenopoidea) del Pacífico mexicano. Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad e Inst. Cienc. Mar y Limnol., UNAM. México. 274 pp. ]]> Hendrickx, M.E. & A.W. Harvey. 1999. Checklist of anomuran crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda) from the Eastern Tropical Pacific. Belg. J. Zool. 129: 363-389.

Hendrickx, M.E., D.P. Sánchez-Vargas & L.A. Vázquez-Cureño. 1990. New records of 20 species of Majoidea and Parthenopoidea (Crustacea: Decapoda) along the Pacific coast of México. Rev. Biol. Trop. 38: 143-146.

Villalobos Hiriart, J.L., J.C. Nates Rodríguez, A. Cantú Díaz Barriga, M.D. Valle Martínez, P. Flores Hernández, E. Lira Fernández& P. Schmidtsdorf Valencia. 1989. Listados faunísticos de México. I. Crustáceos estomatópodos y decapodos intermareales de las Islas del Golfo de California, México. Inst. Biol., Univ. Nac. Autón. México. 1-114.

Wicksten, M.K. & M.E. Hendrickx. 1992. Checklist of penaeoid and caridean shrimps (Decapoda: Penaeoidea: Caridea) from the eastern tropical Pacific. Proc. San Diego Soc. Nat. Hist. 9: 1-11. ]]>