Pontocaris propensalata Spence Bate 1888

Pontocaris propensalata Spence Bate, 1888 (fig. 2) Pontocaris propensalata Spence Bate, 1888: 496, pl. 86 fig. 5, pl. 90 figs 2 -3 (type-locality: Kai Islands, Indonesia).— Ortmann, 1895: 175. Pontocaris media Alcock & Anderson, 1899a: 282 (type-locality: Andaman Sea); 1899b, pl. 41 figs 6-6a. Aegeon medium— Alcock, 1901: 120. Aegeon propensalata— Kemp, 1916: 377.—De man, 1920: 292. ? Pontocaris propensalata— Whitelegge, 1900: 198. ? Pontocaris pennata— Lalitha Devi, 1986: 171, fig. 4. Non Bate, 1888. Pontocaris propensalata — Chan, 1996: 291, fig. 7. Material examined: A specimen submitted to Marine Biodiversity Museum at Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute: Southeastern Arabian Sea, ID: ED.2.6.1.3, Sakthikulangara, off Kollam, Kerala, India, 250–300 m depth, December 2015, 2 Females (CL 10.4 & 11.1 mm). Diagnosis: Rostrum is short and vividly cloven. The carapace is pubescent; length of the carapace 1.13 times as long as wide; dorsally carinated with 7–9 teeth. Lateral carina I bearing 8–9 teeth, lateral carina II carinated with 7 (2+5) teeth and anteriorly interrupted with hepatic sulcus, lateral carina III armed with 10–12 teeth or tubercles. The branchiostegal spine is small extended to the end of 1 st antennular peduncle and directed anterio-laterally. The antennal spine is small, pterygostomian spine little large and appears at an equal level of the branchiostegal spine. Antennal scale length is longer than the width (1.6 times) with anterio-lateral spine. Abdominal segments are carving distinctly subdivided, segment 1 bearing a pair dorsal spine directed anteriorly, segments II and III having continues lateral ridges, segments dorsally armed with strong posteromedian spine, segment V not having the dorsal spine, somite VI was found to bear three pairs of dorsolateral spines. Abdominal pleura with ventral margins were rounded bluntly. Coloration: Body generally muddy brown with transverse pale bands present on the mid-carapace and tail-fan. Remarks: In this study, specimens agreed with the descriptions of Alcock (1901) and Chan (1996). Chan (1996) found the largest female CL 12.4 mm, smallest spawning female CL 11.3 mm and largest male CL 10.7 mm from the Andaman Sea, Philippines, Indonesia, New Caledonia, Chesterfield and Loyalty Islands at the depths of 100– 525 m. Similarly in the present study, two non-ovigerous female specimens were noticed at depth of 250–300 m in continental slope of southeastern Arabian Sea, first pereopod is not chelated. Also, we noticed that carpal length of second pereopod is sub-equal to the length of the chela. Mitochondrial genes sequencing: Three 16S sequences and two COI sequences of P. affinis affinis and two 16S sequences of P. propensalata were submitted to GenBank (accession numbers: MF996919 –25). 4.1% of genetic divergence between the 16S DNA sequences of the two species was observed.Published as part of Purushothaman, P., Chakraborty, Rekha Devi, Kuberan, G. & Maheswarudu, G., 2018, New records of Pontocaris affinis affinis (Alcock, 1901) and Pontocaris propensalata Spence Bate, 1888 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Crangonidae) from Quilon bank of Southeastern Arabian Sea, pp. 269-272 in Zootaxa 4378 (2) on pages 270-271, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4378.2.6, http://zenodo.org/record/116952