Striped Bumblebee Shrimp

Gnathophyllum americanum Guérin-Méneville, 1855

Gnathophyllum americanum Guérin-Méneville, 1855:viii, pl. 2: fig. 14 [type locality: Cuba].—Holthuis, 1949b:244, figs. 5, 6.—Manning, 1963:58, figs. 5, 6.—Bruce, 1975f:25, fig. 12 [color].—Manning and Chace, 1990:12, 13, fig. 7.

Gnathophyllum fasciolatum Stimpson, 1860:28 [type locality: Port Jackson, Australia].

Gnathophyllum zebra Richters, 1880:161, pl. 17: figs. 18–20,22 [type locality: Ilot Fouquets, Mauritius].

Gnathophyllum pallidum Ortmann, 1890:537 [type locality: Tahiti].

Gnathophyllum tridens Nobili, 1906a:259 [type locality: Rikitea, Tuamotu Archipelago; outer reef].

Gnathophyllum minuscularium Armstrong, 1940:9, fig. 4C–K [type locality: The Reach, St. George Island, Bermuda; surface].

DIAGNOSIS.—Rostrum armed with 3–5 dorsal teeth, posterior tooth of series situated on rostrum, proper, anterior to level of posterior orbital margin; telson with posterior pair of lateral spines variably but distinctly removed anteriorly from posterior spines; comea of eye distinctly papillate distally; antennular peduncle with stylocerite reaching about to level of articulation with 2nd segment; 3rd pereopod slender, merus 3–6 times as long as wide; carapace and abdomen, except for 6th somite and telson, dark brown with whitish transverse stripes-6 on carapace, 10 on 5 anterior abdominal somites; ovigerous females with postocular carapace length of 2.3–4.4 mm.

RANGE.—Red Sea to South Africa and eastward through Indo-Pacific region to Tuamotu Archipelago, western Atlantic from Bermuda and southern Florida throughout Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, eastern Atlantic from Canary Islands; to a depth of 50 meters, occasionally associated with echinoderms and has even “been observed browsing on the papulae of several asteroids by means of the highly modified outer maxillipeds.” (Bruce, 1975f:27).

*HYMENOCERIDAE Ortmann, 1890

HYMENOCERIDAE Ortmann, 1890:511.

DIAGNOSIS.—Carapace without longitudinal suture; telson with 2 pairs of spines on posterior margin; antennule with 2 completely separate flagella, 1 with accessory branch, sometimes foliaceous; mandible without palp or incisor process; 1st maxilla with mesial coxal lobe not unusually large, mesial basal lobe not reduced; 2nd maxilla with vestigial endite; 1st maxilliped with exopodal lash; 2nd maxilliped with marginal setae on distal segment not especially stout or dense; 3rd maxilliped with antepenultimate segment articulated with and distinctly wider than next proximal segment; 2nd pereopod with chela compressed toward flexor margin, sometimes foliaceously so, dactyl sometimes serrate on extensor margin; 1st pleopod without appendix intema on endopod; 2nd pleopod with appendix masculina in male.

RANGE.—Red Sea to South Africa and eastward through Indonesia and entire Pacific to Panama.

Gnathophyllum americanum, commonly known as the striped bumblebee shrimp, is a species of shrimp that is common throughout tropical lagoons, bays, and reefs. Similar in coloration to a brightly coloured bumblebee, with blue highlights, the striped bumblebee shrimp can grow up to 1 inch (25 mm) in length.

Shallow-waters (0-100 m)

Hard bottom (rock and rubbles)