Allopontonia brockii De Man 1888, comb. n.
Creators: name: Marin, Ivan
name: Türkay, Michael
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Malacostraca
Decapoda
Palaemonidae
Allopontonia
Allopontonia brockii

description: Allopontonia brockii (De Man, 1888), comb. n.
(Fig. 4)
Anchistia brockii De Man, 1888: 548, pl. 22a, fig. 3 [type locality: Ambon, Indonesia] Periclimenes brockii.— Borradaile, 1898: 383.
Periclimenes (Harpilus) brockii.—Holthuis, 1952: 88.
Allopontonia iaini Bruce, 1972: 7, figs. 1–4 [type locality: Zanzibar]. Periclimenes priodactylus Bruce, 1992: 53, figs. 1, 7–11 [type locality: Queensland, Australia]? Periclimenes signatus Kemp, 1925: 322
Material. 2 males, syntypes, ZMG 818, Indonesia, Mollukken, Amboina, 07–09.1885, leg. Brock (original label).
Diagnosis. Medium-sized pontoniine shrimp. Carapace bearing antennal and movable hepatic teeth (Fig. 4 B, C). Rostrum long and broad; rostral formula 10/0–1 (Fig. 4 C). First pereiopod with subspatulated chela (Fig. 4 D), with broad, slightly flattened fingers. Second pereiopod absent in both syntypes. Third pereiopod (Fig. 4 E) with robust segments, propodus long, about 12 times as long as wide, with numerous pairs of small simple spines along ventral margin, with a pair of disto-ventral spines; dactylus (Fig. 4 F) robust, biunguiculate, with curved triangular unguis and small triangular accessory tooth.
Remarks. Pontoniine shrimp species Anchistia brockii De Man, 1888 was described on the basis of three syntypes coming from J. Brock’ collection from Ambon, Indonesia (Amboina) (De Man, 1888). Since, the species has been referred for several times (Borradaile, 1898; Kemp, 1922; Holthuis, 1952; Chace and Bruce, 1993) but no additional freshly collected or museum material was described. Later, Borradaile (1917) transferred the species to the genus Periclimenes Costa, 1844 (within subgenus С ristiger Borradaile, 1915) and shortly mentioned specimens from the Maldive islands with indication of sea urchin as a host. At the same time, no morphological description of these specimens except drawings of maxilla and maxilliped III were given (Borradaile, 1917: pl. 53–54, fig. 8f–i). By our opinion, Borradaile mentioned the species correctly as Periclimenes (Anchistia) brockii is actually a symbiont of sea urchins (see below). But this suggestion need verification by specimen’s examination and Borradaile’s material (1917) is excluded from the synonymy of the species at the present time.
In the collection of the Senckenberg Natural History Museum two of three syntypes of Periclimenes brockii described by De Man (1888) are still present. The third, possibly, most complete syntype with second pereiopods described by De Man (1888) is absent and its locality is presently unknown. At the same time, it is known that Dr. Johannes Govertus De Man usually took one of described specimens for his personal collection at the Zoological Museum Amsterdam, the Netherlands. During the present survey it was impossible to find the third syntype neither in catalog of the collection of the Zoological Museum Amsterdam nor Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum - Naturalis (previously Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie), Leiden, the Netherlands. Anyway, we hope it could be possibly found later among unsorted or unlabelled material.
By the presence of movable hepatic tooth on carapace Periclimenes brockii is clearly referred to the genus Allopontonia Bruce, 1972, being a senior synonym of the type species, Allopontonia iaini Bruce, 1972.
Distribution. Widely distributed in the tropical Indo-Pacific from the east coast of Africa to the tropical west coasts of Americas (Bruce, 1972, 1983, 1987; Wicksten & Hernández, 2000).
description: Published as part of Marin, Ivan & Türkay, Michael, 2009, Redescription of Periclimenes brockii (De Man, 1888) (Decapoda: Caridea: Pontoniinae) and other De Man's type specimens deposited in the collection of the Senckenberg Natural History Museum (SMF), Frankfurt-at-Maine, Germany, pp. 39-46 in Zootaxa 2296 on pages 43-45, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.191582