Family BENTHESICYMIDAE Wood-Mason in Wood-Mason & Alcock, 1891

Museums

Regional Maps

• Benthesicyminae Wood-Mason, J. 1891. Phylum Appendiculata. Branch Arthropoda. Class Crustacea. In Wood-Mason, J. & Alcock, A., Natural history notes from H.M. Indian marine survey steamer "Investigator", Commander R.F. Hoskyn, R.N., commanding. No. 21. Note on the results of deep sea dredging during the season 1890–91. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 6 8: 269-286 [Date published October 1891] [286] [as Benthesicymina; name in the corrected spelling, Benthesicyminae, placed on the Official List of Family-Group Names in Zoology, see International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1969. Opinion 864. Penaeid generic names (Crustacea, Decapoda): addition of twenty-eight to the Official List. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 25: 138–147 (141)].

  Secondary source:

   International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1969. Opinion 864. Penaeid generic names (Crustacea, Decapoda): addition of twenty-eight to the Official List. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 25: 138-147.

• Pérez Farfante, I. & Kensley, B. 1997. Penaeoid and sergestoid shrimps and prawns of the world. Keys and diagnoses for the families and genera. Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris [1936-1950] 175: 1-233 [56]

Introduction

Benthesicymid shrimps are, like aristeids, bentho-pelagic in deep offshore water. Many species have been collected over great depth ranges, from the surface down to thousands of metres and it is assumed that they migrate vertically. Benthesicymidae have long been recognised as morphologically similar to Aristeidae and this is borne out by molecular studies. Genetic analysis by Vereshchaka, Kulagin & Lunina (2021) provided insight into areas of taxonomic uncertainty within this family. Two subfamilies were erected; Benthesicyminae (benthic) and Gennadinae (benthic and pelagic). The genus Gennadas Bate, 1881, was found to be polyphyletic and new genera were established to accommodate its separation.

The most recent papers dealing with the taxonomy of Australian species are those of Kensley et al. (1987) and Dall (2001), the latter providing a key to genera. Griffiths & Brandt (1983) made interesting ecological observations for benthesicymids in the Tasman Sea, and Dall (2001) discussed the zoogeography of the family. Following the revision of Vereshchaka et al. (2021) the genus Benthesicymus no longer is present in Australia.

Diagnosis

Body typically shrimp-like; integument soft, stiff but not rigid. Rostrum short, triangular, with 1 or few postrostral spines. Postorbital spine absent; with 1 postrostral tooth, or with 2 postrostral teeth. With at least 3 branchiae on some thoracic somites, at least 11 on each side. Prosartesma (mesial process on antennule article 1) reduced to setose boss.

Diagnosis References

Poore, G.C.B.,& Ahyong, S.T. 2023. Marine decapod Crustacea. A guide to families and genera of the World. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing pp. 928.

General References

Dall, W. 2001. Australian species of Aristeidae and Benthesicymidae (Penaeoidea: Decapoda). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 46(2): 409-441

Griffiths, F.B. & Brandt, B. 1983. Distribution of mesopelagic decapod Crustacea in and around a warm-core eddy in the Tasman Sea. Marine Ecology Progress Series 12: 175-184

Kensley, B., Tranter, H.A. & Griffin, D.J.G. 1987. Deepwater Decapod Crustacea from Eastern Australia (Penaeidae and Caridea). Records of the Australian Museum 39: 263-331

Pérez Farfante, I. & Kensley, B. 1997. Penaeoid and sergestoid shrimps and prawns of the world. Keys and diagnoses for the families and genera. Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris [1936-1950] 175: 1-233

Vereshchaka, A.L., Kulagin, D.N. & Lunina, A.A. 2021. Across the benthic and pelagic realms: a species-level phylogeny of Benthesicymidae (Crustacea : Decapoda). Invertebrate Systematics 35: 776–796

History of changes