Recognizing two new Hippolyte species (Decapoda, Caridea, Hippolytidae) from the South China Sea based on integrative taxonomy

Zhi-Bin Gan; Xin-Zheng Li

doi:10.7717/peerj.6605

Recognizing two new Hippolyte species (Decapoda, Caridea, Hippolytidae) from the South China Sea based on integrative taxonomy

PeerJ. 2019 Mar 14:7:e6605. doi: 10.7717/peerj.6605. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Zhi-Bin Gan^{1

2}, Xin-Zheng Li^{1

2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, China.
² Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, China.
³ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁴ Laboratory for Marine Biology and Biotechnology, Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao), Qingdao, China.

Abstract

Hippolyte shrimps exhibit abundant biological diversity and display great ecological significance in seaweed bed ecosystems. Dozens of Hippolyte specimens were collected from Hainan Island and the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea. Detailed examination indicates that some of these specimens represent new Hippolyte species. Based on morphological, genetic, and ecological data, Hippolyte chacei sp. nov. and H. nanhaiensis sp. nov. are described. H. chacei sp. nov. was collected from the Sargassum sp. biotope in Hainan Island and is distinguished from congeners by its unique mandible and the dactylus of the third to fifth pereiopods; this species has a basal position in the Indo-West Pacific species clade in the phylogenetic tree which is reconstructed based on 16S rRNA gene. H. nanhaiensis sp. nov. was collected from the biotopes of Galaxaura sp. or Halimeda sp. in the Xisha Islands, and it differs from congeners in a series of characters associated with rostrum, scaphocerite, antennular peduncle, and spines on the dactylus of the third to fifth pereiopods. Additionally, it is sister to H. australiensis in the phylogenetic tree. A key to identifying mature female Hippolyte species of the Indo-West Pacific and neighboring seas is provided.

Keywords: Caridea; Hippolyte; Integrative taxonomy; Marine biodiversity; New species; South China Sea.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Public Science and Technology Research Funds Projects of Ocean (No. 201505004) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41506171 and 30370186). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.