Contributions to the Knowledge of the Alpheid Shrimp 
of the Pacific Ocean 
Part VII. On Metabetaeus Borradaile, with a New Species from Hawaii 1 
Albert H. Banner and Dora May Banner 2 
The GENUS Metabetaeus was described by Bor- 
radaile (1898: 1014) to contain the species 
originally described by Whitelegge ( 1897 : 147 ) 
as Betaeus minutus. These descriptions and 
Couriered subsequent discussion of the genus 
(1899: 374) were all based on a series of 
specimens collected at Funafuti in the Ellice 
Archipelago. Nothing more on either the genus 
or the species was recorded until R. W. Hiatt 
collected additional specimens of the species in 
a brackish pond at Arno in the Marshall Islands 
(Banner, 1957: 193). 
Since the publication of the 1957 paper, 
additional specimens belonging to this genus 
have been observed alive and collected. M. 
minutus was taken from two different islets 
on Jaluit in the Marshall Islands during a trip 
in April, 1958, to observe typhoon damage on 
that atoll. The trip was sponsored by the Office 
of Naval Research, the Pacific Science Board, 
and the Bernice P. Bishop Museum. 
More interesting is a new species of the 
genus collected from one locality on the island 
of Hawaii. The first several specimens came to 
us from the collections of the Bishop Museum; 
they had been collected in a pool in the Ka’u 
district of Hawaii by E. H. Bryan, Jr., Marian 
Kelly, and William Meinecke. In February, 
1958, we collected more specimens from this 
pool. Many other pools, both in the Ka’u dis- 
trict and in other areas on other islands, were 
investigated, but no more specimens of this 
species were seen. 
This study was supported in part by the Na- 
tional Science Foundation Grant NSFG-3863. 
The authors wish to express their appreciation 
to Mr. William Meinecke, who guided them to 
1 Contribution No. 133, Hawaii Marine Laboratory. 
2 Department of Zoology and Entomology, Univer- 
sity of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii. Manuscript received 
November 1, 1958. 
the pool and aided in the capture of the speci- 
mens. 
Metabetaeus lohena sp. nov. 
Fig. 1 
SPECIMENS: Type specimen, an ovigerous 
female 16.6 mm. long; paratypes, 5 specimens 
collected by the authors and 4 other specimens 
collected by Bryan, Kelly, and Meinecke. 
type LOCALITY: All specimens came from 
a pool in the base of the rock known to the 
Hawaiians as Lohena, a few hundred yards from 
shore between the deserted villages of Wai-o- 
ahu-kini and Ka’ili-ki’i, immediately west of Ka 
Lae or South Point on Hawaii. Lohena is a rock 
perhaps a hundred or more feet in diameter 
surrounded by the boulders of an a’a lava flow; 
in its base are several fissures, one of which is 
a cave about 30 ft. long, 10 or 12 ft. wide at 
the mouth and 15-20 ft. high; the pool of 
brackish water is 4-6 ft. deep in the bottom 
of the cave. 
DESCRIPTION : Carapace rounded dorsally, 
without grooves or keels. Rostrum acute with 
tip reaching to middle of first antennular article; 
dorsal surface rounded, lateral margins poste- 
riorly concave. Supraorbital spines acute, half 
as long as rostrum. Eyes completely concealed 
in dorsal and lateral aspects; pigmented portions 
of corneas greatly reduced. Pterygostomial mar- 
gin rounded. 
Cardiac notch wanting; pleura of sixth ab- 
dominal somite articulated. 
Second article of antennular peduncle as long 
as broad, shorter than visible portion of first, 
and longer than third article; flagella about as 
long as carapace. Stylocerite acute, with tip 
reaching to end of first antennular article. 
Basicerite with strong, acute tooth below 
articulation of scaphocerite. Scaphocerite with 
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