Decapoda - Caridea - Palaemonidae - Pontonia

Pontonia mexicana Guérin-Méneville, 1855 [in Guérin-Méneville, 1855-1856]

4 Illustration(s)

World Distribution
Chace (1972: 39) - West Indies and east coast of Mexico, in bivalve Pinnidae Atrina, Ophiuridea, Astrophyton. - Felder et al. (2009) - 0-2 m, SE GMx, Carib, nS Am, I off Brazil

Environnement : Marine - Substrat/Association : Associated with molluscs

Vertical range : Shallow-waters (0-100 m) - Min-Max observed: 1-10 m

Lesser Antilles data
Distribution: VGI (St John, Tortola, Beef), ICA (Anguilla, Guadeloupe, St Lucia, Martinique, Tobago), IOV (Cubagua, Tortuga, Los Roques, Bonaire, Curaçao). 1-10 m. WA.
Pontonia grayi Rathbun - Schmitt, 1924b: 72, Curaçao [coll. C.J. van der Horst, 1920].
Pontonia mexicana - Holthuis, 1951: 130, Tobago [coll. R/V Velero III, 1939, from ? Pinna], Bonaire [coll. P. Wagenaar Hummelinck, August 30, 1948, in Ophiuroid Astrophyton muricatum], Curaçao [from Schmitt, 1924]. - Chace, 1972: 39, St Lucia [25-30 feet, 7-10 m]. - Rodríguez, 1980: 95, Los Roques. - Carvacho, 1982: 17, Martinique. - Rodríguez, 1986, tab. 2, Los Roques. - Tagliafico et al., 2005: tab. 1, Margarita (Los Frailes). - Fransen, 2002: 132, St John, Tortola (Beef I.), Anguilla, Martinique, St Lucia, Tobago, Los Roques (Is Dos Mosquises), Bonaire, Curaçao. - Lira, 2004: tab. 1, Tortuga. - Hernández-Ávila et al., 2007: tab. 1, Cubagua.

Pontonia mexicana - Guadeloupe, Karubenthos 2012, det. J. Poupin, st. GR14, 09 May 2012, 16°03.25'N, 61°46.17'W, 27 m, JL507-JL511. - Martinique, photo in situ, Y. Buske, 2014, det. J. Poupin.

Pontonia mexicana - Fransen, 2023, Zootaxa: 104, Curaçao [with bivalve mollusks].

Comment(s) on data
Carvacho (1982: 18) - On la signale souvent associé à des espèces de Pinna. - Host record (cf. Fransen, 2002, Zool. Verh.) - Recorded inside the gill cavity of Pinna carnea (Gmelin, 1791) (cf. Criales, 1984; Rodriguez, 1980; present records), Atrina seminuda (Lamarck, 1819) (present record), Pinna rigida (Lightfoot, 1786) (present record), and from unidentified specimens of Pinna (cf. Holthuis, 1951a).
Fransen (2002, Zool. Verh.) - P. mexicana is closely related to P. pinnophylax. Actually their is no clear distinction between the species regarding their morphology or in the colour pattern. (P. pinnophylax is from East Atlantic).
The host mentioned for a specimen from Bonaire by Holthuis (1951; Ophiuroid Astrophyton muricatum) is unusual; Fransen (200: 145) indicates that the corresponding specimen was not located in the RMNH collection.

References : PDF list, 214 pp (1.4 Mo)

This species in Worms Database