Reef-associated palaemonid shrimp fauna of Lakshadweep islands: special focus on Cuapetes Clark, 1919 (Decapoda; Caridea) with a description of new species and phylogenetic notes

ABSTRACT The reef-associated palaemonid shrimp fauna of Indian waters, especially in island ecosystems, is one of the least studied. During explorations at Lakshadweep Islands, Cuapetes elegans (Paulson 1875), C. grandis (Stimpson 1857) and a new species, Cuapetes purushothamani sp. nov., were recorded and illustrated based on the specimens collected from dead coral and rocky shore regions of eastern lagoon of Agatti Island (0.5–1.0 m), Lakshadweep, India. The new species shows close relation with C. elegans, possessing distinctive characteristics as indicated: rostrum extends as far as antennal scale, arrangement of ventral teeth below the wide edentulous dorsal part of rostrum, long dorsal spines of telson, a fewer number of segments in antennal flagellum, fingers of first chelated leg slightly longer than palm, chela of second cheliped longer than combined length of merus and carpus with inflated palm. In addition, the partial sequences of mitochondrial genes cytochrome c oxidase I (COI), 16S and nuclear Histone 3 (H3) gene were generated and compared with other available species of Cuapetes. The phylogenetic analyses strongly supported our new discovery, Cuapetes purushothamani sp. nov., which possesses a close relationship with C. elegans by having high interspecific genetic divergences (COI: 19.2–19.9%; 16S: 12–12.8%; H3: 3.1–3.9%). http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:1B5C9228-9D9F-430E-BF11-C6DC7510DF1B