Strianassa lerayi anker, new shrimp species from Panama's Coiba national
park

Date:
August 13, 2020
Source:
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Summary:
Last year's expedition, part of the project to compare microbiomes
of animals in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, resulted in the
discovery of several new animal genera including a new species of
mud shrimp.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
John Steinbeck wrote Log From the Sea of Cortez in 1951, his chronicle
of an expedition with marine biologist Ed Ricketts along the coast
of California and Mexico. Ricketts named several of the many new
marine animals they found after Steinbeck, his friend and patron of
the expedition. On a similar expedition in February 2019 to Panama's
Coiba National Park in the Pacific Ocean, marine biologists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) discovered several new, undescribed animals, genera and species never seen or photographed before, nearly every day.


========================================================================== Matthieu Leray, post-doctoral fellow at STRI, invited two zoologists, STRI Research Associate Arthur Anker and Paulo Pachelle, to join the expedition
to Coiba. Both are based in Brazil and specialize in the identification
of decapod crustaceans, such as shrimps, crabs, hermit-crabs and lobsters.

Anker named one of the new genus and species of mud-shrimps in the
family Laomediidae, Strianassa lerayi, to honor both the Smithsonian in
Panama and his friendship with Leray. The generic name comes from the abbreviation of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the last
six letters of a morphologically similar genus, Axianassa. Since "anassa"
is derived from the ancient Greek word for queen, the name of the new
genus literally means "Queen of STRI." "Arthur was able to describe three
new genera and one new species of shrimp based on a week of collecting
in Coiba National Park," Leray said. "This is a phenomenal contribution
to our knowledge of just one group of organisms. We are in the process
of identifying what we found and will announce more new species soon."
The team found the only known specimen of this new mud shrimp under a
rock while snorkeling in shallow waters in the archipelago.

The site of their discovery is only a few kilometers away from the newest
STRI research station on Coibita Island. Anker and Pachelle also found a
small clam with a highly reduced shell, a huge mantle with papillae and
long extensible foot, popularly known as a "yoyo clam." These unusually
mobile and active bivalve mollusks live in symbiosis with burrowing mantis shrimps. This is the first known yoyo clam from the eastern Pacific
and represents a new species of the genus Divariscintilla. Amazingly,
the site where they found a single specimen of the clam is the boat
"parking area" of the STRI station at Coibita.

The species is now being studied by a Japanese team, all specialists in
this taxonomically difficult group of mollusks.



==========================================================================
"We are thrilled by the potential of our newest research station on
Coibita," said Oris Sanjur, acting director at STRI. "The tropical eastern Pacific is still largely unexplored by specialists with knowledge of
these, less obvious, organisms. At our Bocas del Toro Research Station,
the director, Rachel Collin, began a program called Training in Tropical Taxonomy that brings specialists from around the world to Panama. In
the past 10 years, they have identified more than 75 new species, many
of which are only found in Panama. We hope to foster similar programs
based at the Coibita Station." The expedition was funded by STRI and
the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation as part of a much larger project
called The Role of Microbes in Shaping Tropical Ecosystems. The aim of
that project is to better understand how microbial communities evolve by comparing the microbes on "sister species," animals that were separated
when the rise of the Isthmus of Panama divided one ocean into the Atlantic
and Pacific, millions of years ago. Scientists want to better understand
how closely associated microbes are with their hosts and the importance
of environment and other factors in determining their presence.

The researchers thank the Coiba National Park staff and Panama's Ministry
of the Environment, MiAmbiente, for the collection permits that make
new discoveries like this possible.

"We collected Pachelpheus pachyacanthus and a new species of clam at the
beach in Coibita in a meter of water at low tide, which to me says a lot
about how rich, unique and incredibly understudied the marine fauna of
Coiba National Park (and the Tropical Eastern Pacific) is," Leray said.

In addition to Strianassa lerayi, other new shrimps were discovered by
the STRI team working in Coiba in 2019 and described by Arthur Anker:
* Pachelpheus pachyacanthus: New genus and species of burrow-dwelling
alpheid shrimp discovered on Isla Racheria (Coibita) near the
boat parking area; the genus was named after Anker's friend and
co-collector, Pachelle. Unesconia coibensis: New genus and species
of miniature, sponge-associated palaemonid shrimp; the genus was
named after UNESCO, which declared Coiba as World Heritage Site.

* Triacanthoneus blanca: Another new alpheid shrimp species named
after
Blanca Figueroa a former post-doc in staff scientist Aaron O'Dea's
lab at STRI.

The researchers also add Leslibetaeus coibita, also a new genus and
species, which was described by Anker and collaborators in 2005 when
Anker was a post- doctoral fellow at STRI. The species name indicates
that it was collected in Coibita, right in front of the station.

"New microbes are a dime a dozen," said Bill Wcislo, senior staff
scientist and microbiome project leader along with Jonathon Eisen at the University of California Davis. "But several new host genera in a short
time collecting in just one group of invertebrates. That is something remarkable. And a new species named for STRI and for Matt Leray is
spectacular! It is just the tip of the iceberg for the Smithsonian's
newest crown jewel."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Smithsonian_Tropical_Research_Institute. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Arthur Anker. Strianassa lerayi gen. et sp. nov., a new laomediid
mud-
shrimp from the eastern Pacific, with new records of Axianassa
ngochoae Anker, 2010 and Heteroaxianassa heardi (Anker, 2011)
in the western Pacific (Malacostraca: Decapoda:. Zootaxa, 2020;
4820 (3): 523 DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4820.3.6 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200813105946.htm

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