Gnathophyllum taylori, a new species of caridean shrimp from south-eastern Australia (Crustacea: Decapoda: Gnathophyllidae)

Abstract

The most recent treatment of the caridean genus Gnathophyllum Latreille, 1819, recognised eight species worldwide with two in the Indo-West Pacific -G. americanum Gnathophyllum precipuum is known only from Hawai'i. Gnathophyllum americanum is presently recognised as having a circumtropical distribution and in the Indo-Pacific is known from the Red Sea and South Africa to Australia, Japan and French Polynesia. Off eastern Australia, G. americanum is known as far south as Port Jackson, Sydney, New South Wales. To date, specimens of Gnathophyllum from south-eastern Australia have not been studied in any detail but a popular account recognised two colour forms of G. americanum from eastern Australia One form bears numerous narrow pale bands on a dark background, and the other form bears relatively few, narrow dark bands on a pale background. The first form is G. americanum sensu stricto, whereas the second form represents a new species, described below.