Alpheid shrimps (Decapoda: Caridea) of the Trindade & Martin Vaz Archipelago, off Brazil, with new records, description of a new species of Synalpheus and remarks on zoogeographical patterns in the oceanic islands of the tropical southern Atlantic.

Abstract

The present study deals with shrimps of the family Alpheidae collected in the shallow waters around the remote Trindade & Martin Vaz Archipelago, situated 1200 km off the coast of Espírito Santo, Brazil. A few additional samples came from dredges on top of the seamounts of the Vitória-Trindade Seamount Chain. A total of 23 species in eight genera are reported, the vast majority representing new records for the area. One species is described as new, Synalpheus trinitatis sp. nov., based on the type material from Trindade Island. The new species clearly belongs to the Synalpheus brooksi Coutière, 1909 species complex, differing from all its other members by at least two morphological features. Four species represent new records for Brazil and the southwestern Atlantic: Alpheopsis aequalis Coutière, 1897 sensu lato, Alpheopsis chalciope de Man, 1910 sensu lato, Alpheus crockeri (Armstrong, 1941) and Prionalpheus gomezi Martínez-Iglesias & Carvacho, 1991; the two species of Alpheopsis are recorded from the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. The colour pattern of the recently described Alpheus rudolphi Almeida & Anker, 2011, a species endemic to Brazil, is shown for the first time and compared to the colour patterns of the four closely related species of the A. armatus Rathbun, 1901 complex from the Caribbean-Florida region. A brief zoogeographical analysis of the alpheid fauna of the oceanic islands of the tropical southern Atlantic (Trindade & Martin Vaz, Fernando de Noronha, Atol das Rocas, São Pedro & São Paulo, Ascension, Saint Helena, Cape Verde, São Tomé & Príncipe) is also provided.