Decapoda

Decapoda , Ctenochelidae , new record, dead coral fauna, cryptic fauna.

Th e ghost shrimps genus Ctenocheloides Anker, 2010 currently include only three species, Ctenocheloides attenboroughi Anker, 2010 from Madagascar, C. almeidai Anker & Pachelle, 2013 from northeastern Brazil and C. boucheti Poore, 2015 from Papua New Guinea.A fourth species, Ctenocheloides nomurai Komai, 2013 described from Japan, was later removed to its own genus Kiictenocheloides Sakai, 2013 based on the shape of the chelipeds and armature of the major chela fingers ( Sakai, 2013). Th e importance of such subtle differences at genus level still needs to be evaluated in future phylogenetic study. Although Sakai (2011) proposed the family Ctenocheloidae Sakai, 2011 to house both genera, the present study follows the same arrangement as in Poore (2015), keeping Ctenocheloides in Ctenochelidae .

Ctenocheloides almeidai was described based on a female obtained from a deep crevice cemented with compact clay-like silt in a coral rock at a depth of ~ 1 m in Ponta Verde , Maceió, state of Alagoas, Brazil ( Anker and Pachelle, 2013) .

During the activities of the project “Diversidade de Crustáceos Decápodos Marinhos e Estuarinos do Sul da Bahia, Brasil ” (2003–2015), specimens of C. almeidai were retrieved from dead fragments of the firecoral Millepora alcicornis Linnaeus, 1758 in a locality in southern Bahia, Brazil, thus representing the second finding of the species since its original description.

The present material was collected while scuba diving at the Parque Municipal Marinho do Recife de Fora (16°23’0”S 38°59’0” W), Porto Seguro , Bahia, in April 2012 and May 2013. The specimens were obtained at a depth of 10–12 m in two types of substrata: dead portions of coral head colonized by other organisms (e.g., algae, sponges and zoanthids), and coral rubble collected on the basis of the colonies. The dead coral heads were detached using hammer and chisel. The fragments were wrapped in cloth bags to prevent the associated fauna from escaping. In the laboratory, the specimens were extracted from the coral crevices and crioanesthetized prior the preservation in ethanol 70%. The material was identified using Anker and Pachelle’s (2013) description and illustrations, and deposited in the Crustacean Collection of the Museu de Oceanografia of Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife , Brazil ( MOUFPE). Drawings were performed with the aid of a camera lucida. Carapace length (CL) was measured along the mid-dorsal line from the anterior to posterior margins of carapace GoogleMaps .