A new species of the enigmatic shrimp genus Pseudocheles (Decapoda: Bresiliidae) from Sulawesi (Indonesia), with the designation of a new family Pseudochelidae

Abstract

A new species of caridean shrimp, Pseudocheles neutra sp.nov. is described from Sulawesi, Indonesia. The new species can be distinguished from its congeners by a suite of characters, including the presence of a distinct tooth on the posterolateral margin of the fifth pleuron, as well as several differences in spination. A new family, Pseudochelidae is created to accommodate the genus. This family can be distinguished from the Bresiliidae and Alvinocarididae in the presence of well developed exopods on the ambulatory pereiopods and the fusion of the ischium and merus of the first and second pereiopods, and from the Disciadidae primarily in the absence of a disc-shaped dactylus of the first pereiopod. The new family differs from all known Caridean families in the presence of pseudochelate ambulatory pereiopods.