Two new shrimps of the genus Philocheras (Decapoda, Caridea, Crangonidae) from East Asian waters

Abstract

Two new species of the crangonid genus Philocheras, P. gemmaceus and P. fujinoi, are described and illustrated from East Asian waters. Both were previously treated insufficiently; one was erroneously referred to Pontophilus candidus Kemp, and the other, Pontophilus sp. of Fujino and Miyake (1970), was left unnamed, because only a single, mutilated specimen was available. The first new species, P. gemmaceus, is more closely related to P. planoculminus Bruce than to P. candidus (Kemp). Philocheras gemmaceus is readily distinguishable from them by the combination of the wider rostrum, the presence of the median gastric spine in females and the bud-like appendix interna of the endopod of the second to fifth pleopods in males. More complete material from the northern South China Sea confirms the validity of the latter new species, P. fujinoi, which is distinguished from other members of the genus by the presence of one gastric spine, three frontal spines on the postorbital carina, two spines situated behind branchiostegal spine, the minute spine just mesial to the antennal spine, and the movable thumb of the first pereiopod.