A NEW SPECIES OF CUAPETES (DECAPODA, CARIDEA, PALAEMONIDAE) FROM THE CANARY ISLANDS

A new species of Cuapetes, C. canariensis sp. nov., is described on the basis of a single specimen from Tenerife, Canary Islands. This is the first record of a species in the genus Cuapetes from the eastern Atlantic. It belongs to a group of previously exclusively Indo-West Pacific species possessing a supraorbital spine and a distoventral tooth on the merus of the second pereiopods. A morphological comparison with members of this group of species is provided. A molecular analysis based on the mitochondrial 16S gene of available sequences of Cuapetes species and species of related genera reveals its close affinity with Cuapetes amymone.