Vol. 46 No. 4, 2007

Establishment of a New Genus for Arete borradailei Coutière, 1903 and Athanas verrucosus Banner and Banner, 1960, with Redefinitions of Arete Stimpson, 1860 and Athanas Leach, 1814 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Alpheidae)

Arthur Anker^1,* and Ming-Shiou Jeng²

¹Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Naos Unit 0948, APO AA 34002-0948, USA
²Research Center for Biodiversity, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan

Arthur Anker and Ming-Shiou Jeng (2007) Arete borradailei Coutière, 1903 and Athanas verrucosus Banner and Banner, 1960 are transferred to Rugathanas gen. nov., based on several unique features on the chelipeds, 3rd pereiopods, antennules, and mouthparts.  The establishment of Rugathanas enables the redefinition of Athanas Leach, 1814 and Arete Stimpson, 1860, and a formal revalidation of Arete, formerly a synonym of Athanas.  Two important features, the number of pereiopodal epipods and the number of carpal segments of the 2nd pereiopod, are variable within Rugathanas gen. nov., but may be used to distinguish Athanas from Arete.  The distribution ranges of R. borradailei (Coutière, 1903) comb. nov. and R. verrucosus (Banner and Banner, 1960) comb. nov. are considerably extended based on recently collected material from the Ryukyu Is., Japan; Kenting, southern Taiwan; and Norfolk I., off eastern Australia.

Key words: Alpheidae, New genus, Athanas, Arete, Indo-Pacific.

*Correspondence: E-mail:ankera@si.edu