Rugathanas borradailei Coutiere 1903
Creators: name: Anker, Arthur
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Malacostraca
Decapoda
Alpheidae
Rugathanas
Rugathanas borradailei

description: Rugathanas borradailei (Coutière, 1903)
Figure 3
Remark: Synonymy below from Anker & Jeng (2007), updated and corrected
Arete Borradailei Coutière 1903: 80, figs. 19–24; Coutière 1905a: 737; Coutière 1905b: 861, fig. 133.
Athanas borradailei – Banner & Banner 1960a: 138; Jacquotte 1964: 180; Banner & Banner 1966: 152; Banner & Banner 1983: 73; Chace 1988: 61.
Rugathanas borradailei – Anker & Jeng 2007: 48, figs. 1–3, 6a.
Arete ghardaqensis Ramadan 1936: 15, pl. 1, figs. 2–8.
Athanas ghardaqensis – Banner & Banner 1960a: 138; Banner & Banner 1981: 42.
Athanas polynesia Banner & Banner 1966: 152, fig. 7; Banner & Banner 1982: 302, fig. 93.
Material examined. French Polynesia, Society Islands. 1 male (CL 2.20 mm), FLMNH UF Arthropoda 16327, Moorea, lagoon between Cook’s Bay and Sheraton Hotel, 17.4764˚ S, 149.8327˚ W, outer reef slope, spur and groove zone, from large dead Acropora, depth: 4–7 m, coll. C. McKeon, J. Moore, processed by A. Anker, 10.XI.2008 [BMOO-fcn 5251]; 1 ovigerous female (CL 2.05 mm), FLMNH UF Arthropoda 16326, same collection data as for previous specimen [fcn BMOO-5250].
Additional material examined. 1 male (CL not measured), FLMNH UF Arthropoda 17331, Australia, Queensland, Lizard Island, Hicks Reef, 14.4480˚ S, 145.4992˚ W, fore reef, brushing of large Pocillopora head, depth: 5–7 m, coll. M. Blazewicz, processed by A. Anker, 21.II.2009 [fcn LIZ-1515]; 1 male (CL not measured), FLMNH UF Arthropoda 11165, Line Islands, Northern Fanning Group, Kingman Reef, southern shore of atoll, 6.3796˚ N, 162.3648˚ W, outer reef slope, from dead coral head (Pocillopora verrucosa?), depth: 16–17 m, coll. G. Paulay, N. Knowlton and others, 28.VIII.2005 [fcn MSR-145]; 1 ovigerous female (CL not measured), FLMNH UF Arthropoda 11159, Line Islands, Northern Fanning Group, Kingman Reef, north-eastern side of atoll, 6.4358˚ N, 162.3822˚ W, outer reef slope, from dead coral head (Pocillopora verrucosa?), depth: 0–12 m, coll. G. Paulay, N. Knowlton and others, 27.VIII.2005 [fcn MSR-66].
Description. See Coutière (1903, 1905b), as Arete borradailei; Ramadan (1936), as Arete ghardaqensis; Banner & Banner (1966, 1982), as Athanas polynesia; see also Banner & Banner (1983) for synonymy and Anker & Jeng (2007) for diagnosis and additional illustrations.
Colour pattern. Semitransparent, speckled with red or orange-red chromatophores, sometimes forming diffuse transverse bands on abdomen (Fig. 3); eggs / fresh embryos bright green (Fig. 3 B). See also colour description and photograph in Anker & Jeng (2007).
Type locality. Hulule Male Atoll, Maldives.
Ecology. In crevices in dead corals, often Pocillopora and Acropora; sometimes also in boreholes made by the sea urchin Stomopneustes variolaris Lamarck, 1816 (Jacquotte 1964), at depths ranging from intertidal to at least 12 m; probably lives in male-female pairs.
Distribution. Indo-West Pacific: Red Sea, East Africa, Madagascar, Maldives, Mascarene Islands, Philippines, Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, Australia, Samoa (Anker & Jeng 2007); herewith range extended to the Society Islands (Moorea), French Polynesia, and the northern Line Islands (US territory).
Remarks. Rugathanas borradailei is apparently widespread in the Indo-West Pacific, but is either not very common or easily overlooked due to its small size and semi-translucence. This species has been collected only once in a sampling period of almost six weeks in Moorea, and apparently for the first time in French Polynesia. Similarly, it has been collected only once in about three weeks of intensive sampling around Lizard Island.
As pointed out earlier (Anker & Jeng 2007), the synonymy of Arete ghardaqensis from the Red Sea (type locality: Hurghada, Egypt) and Athanas polynesia from the western Pacific (type locality: Tutuila, Samoa, herewith correcting error in Anker & Jeng 2007), proposed by Banner & Banner (1983) needs confirmation, especially by examining and sequencing fresh specimens from the type locality (Maldives), other parts of the Indian Ocean (especially the Red Sea), and the western Pacific.
description: Published as part of Anker, Arthur, 2010, New findings of rare or little-known alpheid shrimp genera (Crustacea, Decapoda) in Moorea, French Polynesia, pp. 23-41 in Zootaxa 2403 on pages 27-29, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.194125