Synalpheus digueti Coutière, 1909
Synalpheus digueti is a snapping shrimp from the eastern Pacific. It belongs to the Brevicarpus species group within the genus Synalpheus (Coutiere 1909).
Synalpheus digueti belongs to the Brevicarpus species group within the genus Synalpheus (Coutière, 1909). Named for M. Diguet. Type locality: Lower California (Coutiere, 1909). See Abele (1975) for additional description; Anker (2001) reports this species may in fact be a species complex.
Although little is known about habitat use in S. digueti, Abele (1975) reported that individuals from Panama lived in pairs in Pocillopora coral heads.
Synalpheus digueti typically lives in heterosexual pairs (Abele 1975); Coutiere (1909) reported that the eggs produce zoeae (swimming larvae).
Maximum body size (carapace length, or CL) of males is 7.6 mm; females, 8.4 mm (Abele (1975)). Color: body translucent, with blue appendages and red-tipped chelae (claws)(Abele 1975).
Snapping shrimp in the Alpheidae family have been a model system for studying molecular divergence in "transisthmian" taxa that diverged following the closure of the Isthmus of Panama. Synalpheus digueti occurs in the eastern Pacific, and is morphologically and genetically similar to Synalpheus minus in the Western Atlantic (Morrison et al. 2004).
Sequenced in Morrison et al. 2004 (as diguPP01, diguPP03); sequences available in GenBank for 16S mtDNA (AY344747) and COI (AY344728, AY344727).
Eastern Pacific: Baja California (Coutiere 1909); Pacific Panama (Abele 1976); Pacific Colombia (Abele 1975); Pacific Costa Rica (Vargas and Cortes 1999).