Abstract.— A new species of ghost 

 shrimp Lepidophthalmu.t sinuensis is 

 described from the Caribbean coast 

 of Colombia, and general ecological 

 observations are made on the condi- 

 tions under which it was found. The 

 new species can be distinguished 

 from others in the genus by the pres- 

 ence of large subrectangular lateral 

 projections on the frontal region of 

 the carapace. The new species was 

 discovered in ponds of a commercial 

 penaeid shrimp farm where its bur- 

 row densities range up to 2093 bur- 

 row openings/m 2 in pond bottoms 

 consisting of fine sand. It appears 

 that, on at least a temporary basis, 

 activities of L. sinuensis may nega- 

 tively impact penaeid shrimp culture. 



Lepidophthalmus sinuensis: A New 

 Species of Ghost Shrimp (Decapoda: 

 Thalassinidea: Callianassidae) of 

 Importance to the Commercial 

 Culture of Penaeid Shrimps on 

 the Caribbean Coast of Colombia, 

 with Observations on its Ecology 



Rafael Lemaitre 



Smithsonian Oceanographic Sorting Center 



National Museum of Natural History, Washington. DC 20560 



Sergio de Almeida Rodrigues 



Departamento de Ecologfa Geral. Institute de Biociencias 



Universidade de Sao Paulo, C. Postal 1 1461, 05499 Sao Paulo, SP. Brazil 



Manuscript accepted 1 July 1991. 

 Fishery Bulletin, U.S. 89:623-630 (1991) 



During the first few months of 1990, 

 penaeid shrimp production in several 

 of the older ponds of a penaeid shrimp 

 farm owned by the company Agro- 

 soledad S.A. (located south of Car- 

 tagena, on the Caribbean coast of 

 Colombia) began unexpectedly to 

 decrease. Symptoms in the affected 

 ponds during the grow-out cycles 

 were: sustained low dissolved oxygen 

 concentrations, an unusually high 

 number of thalassinid burrows on the 

 bottom, and small (unmarketable) 

 shrimp in the harvest. About 50% of 

 the ponds of the farm appeared to be 

 affected. Other shrimp farms along 

 this coast, however, were not af- 

 fected. In July of 1990, biologists 

 from the company, suspecting that 

 the thalassinid might be the cause of 

 the problem, sent specimens to one 

 of us (RL) for identification. Our ex- 

 amination of the material revealed 

 that the specimens represented a 

 new species of the family Callianas- 

 sidae. Subsequently, we traveled to 

 the shrimp farm to obtain additional 

 samples and make observations. In- 

 cluded herein is the description of 

 this new species as well as some 

 general ecological observations on 



the conditions under which it was 

 found. 



The discovery of this new callianas- 

 sid is of significance to the rapidly 

 growing industry of penaeid shrimp 

 culture in Colombia. In 1990, the 

 1504 ha of ponds that were in produc- 

 tion on the Caribbean coast alone 

 produced a total harvest of 4314 

 metric tons of whole shrimp, valued 

 at US$22.4 million. The shrimp pro- 

 duced is a mixture of Penaeus van- 

 namei Boone, and P. stylirostris 

 Stimpson. Although in Asian coun- 

 tries and western North America, 

 thalassinids are known to cause dam- 

 age to aquaculture operations, paddy 

 fields, and engineering projects (e.g., 

 Scharff and Tweedie 1942, Sankolli 

 1963, MacGinitie and MacGinitie 

 1968, ASEAN 1978), this is the first 

 known case in the New World where 

 a thalassinid has been proposed as 

 potentially affecting penaeid shrimp 

 mari culture. 



The material of the new species 

 has been deposited in the National 

 Museum of Natural History, Smith- 

 sonian Institution, Washington, 

 DC (USNM), Museu de Zoologia da 

 Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil 



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