Description of Alpheopsis gorei sp. nov., a mesophotic alpheid shrimp from the western Atlantic (Decapoda: Caridea)

Abstract

A new mesophotic alpheid shrimp, Alpheopsis gorei sp. nov., is described from several offshore localities in the northern and north-eastern Gulf of Mexico off Texas, Louisiana and western Florida. However, the distribution range of the new species extends to the Atlantic coast of Florida, with a previous record from deep-water reefs off Key Largo, under A. trispinosa Stimpson, 1860. The presently known bathymetric range of A. gorei sp. nov. is 42.1-126.2 m and the species appears to be free-living, mainly among coralline nodules and in crevices of deep coral rubble. The new species is morphologically closest to the eastern Altantic A. africana Holthuis, 1952 and A. azorica Anker, Poddoubtchenko & d’Udekem d’Acoz, 2005, the eastern Pacific A. equidactylus Lockington, 1877, and the Indo-West Pacific A. trispinosa, A. garricki Yaldwyn, 1971 and A. keijii Anker, 2007, differing from each of them by at least two morphological characters.