Study On The Taxonomy And Zoogeography Of The Crangonoidea (Crustacea: Decapoda) Of China Seas And Some Other Areas

The Superfamily Crangonoidea belongs to Infraorder Caridea, Order Decapoda, Subphylum Crustacea. It includes two families, Crangonidae and Glyphocrangonidae. The species of the superfamily are unique in Caridea with the first pereiopods are subchelate (Crangonidae) or prehensile (Glyphocrangonidae). Crangonoidea is a very important macrobenthic crustacean group, some species are economic ones. In China, Liu (1955) firstly described four common species from the northern Chinses seas, including Crangon hakodatei Rathbun, 1902, the most common crangonid shrimp species in the northern Yellow Sea. Pontocaris pennata (Bate, 1888) and Aegaeon lacazei (Gourret, 1887) are also common in bottom trawls in the East and South China Seas. However, the research on the taxonomy, fauna and zoogeography of the Crangonoidea from China seas is very poor.Based on about 1700 specimens mainly deposited in the Marine Biological Museum, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the present thesis deals with a comprehensive research of the taxonomy and zoogeography of Crangonoidea from China seas. The specimens examined in the study were collected from the China seas including the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea, also from the Sea of Japan, the Philippines, the arctic water, the cold water around the Antarctica, by the National Comprehensive Oceanographic Survey (1958-1960), the China-Vietnam Comprehensive Oceanographic Survey of the Beibu Gulf (1959-1960, 1962), the CAS Xisha Islands Marine Biological Investigation (1975-1980), the CAS Nansha Islands Investigation (1985, 1987-2000), a series of investigations to Antarctica and arctic pole made by the Institute of Oceanology, CAS, the Philippines"PANGLAO 2004"and"PANGLAO 2005"deep-sea expeditions, and other field works. All specimenss were observed under optical microscope, and identified according to the morphological characters.Two families, 15 genera and 32 species are identified, including three new species and nine species recorded for the first time from the China seas. After this study, there have been at least 11 genera, 44 species of the Crangonoidea found from China seas. Detailed descriptions and illustrations, and the distributions are provided and listed to all the 32 checked species. Keys to the species for all the genera are given.