Saron rectirostris

Blogie Robillo Another shrimp. Is this a Saron? Night dive, ~30ft, Samal Island. This critter was probably 3-4cm long.

Ron Silver Yes

Blogie Robillo Aha! Which species, though?

Ron Silver Saron spp.

Blogie Robillo Ohh. Does that mean it's an undescribed species, Ron?

Ron Silver It means that the Marbled Shrimp complex had not yet been unscrambled when my ID volume was published. :-D

Blogie Robillo I see... And I'm sure taxonomists would like to examine their DNA before properly classifying/identifying them, huh?

Blogie Robillo Ron, forgive me for my ignorance, but which book is that? I'm sure many in this group would like to get a hold of a copy!

Ron Silver I use many, but 2 good ones to get would be Reef Creature ID -Tropical Pacific by Humann & DeLoach and Reef Fish ID -Tropical Pacific by Allen, Steene, Humann, & DeLoach.

Blogie Robillo Might this not be Saron marmoratus? http://eol.org/pages/344478/overview

Ron Silver Could be. Lots of variation in colors. I don't see much of the thick tufts of sensory hairs on the carapace and abdomen of the shrimp in your photo.

Blogie Robillo Oh are those indicators for S. marmoratus, Ron? Because those tufts are there! (My photo's not very good.)

Ron Silver It's an indicator for many of the Sarons.

Blogie Robillo Ah I see. Maybe I could just label this one as Saron cf marmoratus?

Ron Silver :-D

Arne Kuilman There are different Saron shrimp. As far as I know 2 have been determined with a Latin name.

Arne Kuilman Here's an overview: http://www.diveplanet.ru/en/sea-inhabitants/hippolytidae/

Ron Silver My 2010 ID Volume lists 4 species - Saron inermis, S. neglectus, S. rectirostris, and S. marmoratus.

Ryanskiy Andrey I think that on the picture we can see S.marmoratus in its "classical" form

Boomer William Wing Ron is correct, only 4 listed as Saron Saron inermis Hayashi, Debelius, 1983 Saron marmoratus Olivier, 1811 Saron neglectus de Man, 1902 Saron rectirostris Hayashi, 1984 Last update ^ 2011

Christopher Ashelby Yep four currently described but as Ron says there is immense variation in colour and likely to be several undescribed species. DNA may not be necessary but photo matched species would certainly help. The sensory hairs may not be useful as they are highly variable in other hippolytid shrimps.

Boomer William Wing But Chris, those may not be different species at all and no more than subspecies due to geographic varation, diet, SSTP, etc..

Christopher Ashelby True, they may not be distinct species or even subspecies but equally they may. I'm not sure anyone has really looked at the problem in detail.

Blogie Robillo I hope someday researchers will be able to pin down their scientific classification. In the meantime, I'm happy to know I've finally 'caught' a Saron. (Too bad, though, the current was uncooperative, so I was only able to get a few shots.)

Ole Johan Brett http://www.tropicalfavourites.com/SpeciesInfo739.aspx