Alpheus utriensis Ramos and Von Prahl
Alpheus utriensis is a snapping shrimp from the tropical eastern Pacific, and lives in pairs in crevices of coral and coral rubble. Distributed from the Gulf of California south to Colombia, this species belongs to the Crinitus species group within the genus Alpheus (Anker et al. 2008). For more details, see Knowlton et al. (2008): http://biogeodb.stri.si.edu/bioinformatics/alpheus/Alpheus_Template.php?....
Alpheus utriensis belongs to the Crinitus species group within the genus Alpheus (Anker et al. 2008). Named after the type locality, Utria Sound, Colombia.Type locality: Utria Sound, Pacific coast of Colombia (Anker et al. 2008), types stored at the Allan Hancock Foundation, Los Angeles County Museum (AHF). Holotype: AHF 842. Common name: Utria spotted snapping shrimp.
Crevices in coral rubble and coral pavement; likely capable of boring small tunnels into rocks (or enlarging natural cavities); occasionally in sponges, intertidal to 35 m depth (Anker et al. 2008).
Maximum body size (carapace length, or CL) of males is 8.6 mm; females, 7.5 mm (Anker et al. 2008). Color: Body with intercalcated transverse bands of dark and light green, and numerous yellow chromatophores; chelae translucent green with yellow finger tips; eggs orange (Ramos and Von Prahl 1997). Closely related to Alpheus cristulifrons (West Atlantic) and A. xanthocarpus (east Atlantic), A. utriensis can be separated from A. cristulifrons, by the non-balaeniceps fingers of the male minor chela (vs. balaeniceps in A. cristulifrons), and from A. xanthocarpus by the shorter rostral carina (Knolwton, Anker, and Jara 2008).
Alpheus cristulifrons (sensu Kim and Abele 1988, Wicksten 1983); for full list of synonomies see Anker et al. 2008.
Snapping shrimp in the genus Alpheus have been a model system for studying molecular divergence in "transisthmian" taxa that diverged following the closure of the Isthmus of Panama (Knowlton et al 1993, Hurt et al. 2009). Based on cytochrome oxidase I (COI) sequence data, Anker et al. (2008) hypothesized that the West Atlantic species A. cristulifrons is the sister species to the east-Atlantic species A. xanthocarpus, and that A. cristulifrons and eastern Pacific A. utriensis do not represent transisthmian geminate species, as previously thought (Knowlton and Weight 1998).
Sequenced in Williams et al. 2001, Anker et al. 2008b, Hurt et al. 2009; sequences available in GenBank for COI (FJ013887-91, EF092279-80), elongation-factor 2 (FJ013604-9), glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (FJ13793-5), tetrahydrofolate synthase (FJ013851-5), putative GTP-binding protein (FJ013705-10), glucose phosphate dehydrogenase (FJ013498-02), and alanyl-tRNA synthetase (FJ013394-00).
Eastern Pacific: tropical and subtropical areas, from central Gulf of California to Colombia. For full list of localities, see Anker et al. (2008).