Family LAOMEDIIDAE Borradaile, 1903

Museums

Regional Maps

• Laomediidae Borradaile, L.A. 1903. On the classification of the Thalassinidea. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 12(7): 534-551, 638 [540].

  Type genus:

   Laomedia De Haan, 1841.

Introduction

Laomediid mud shrimps inhabit permanent burrows in intertidal and shallow-water estuarine and marine sediments. The family was diagnosed by Ngoc-Ho (1997) who recognised two subfamilies on the basis of a cladistic analysis of adult and larval morphological characters, Axianassinae from Laomediinae, which were subsequently treated as families. Komai (2014) reviewed molecular and evidence for the separation of Axianassidae from Laomediidae, as did Anker and Pachelle (2016). Their genera can not be conveniently divided into two families on the basis of obvious characters such as antennae and sutures on uropodal rami and are treated as one family here.

This family is represented in Australia by two species: Laomedia healyi Yaldyn & Wear, 1970, and L. barronensis Ngoc-Ho & Yaldwyn, 1997. Both are cryptic species confined to intertidal mangroves of eastern Australia. Larvae of an unidentified species belonging to a second genus, Jaxea Nardo, have been recorded from the plankton off eastern Australia by Dakin & Colefax (1940), but no adult Jaxea species have ever been captured. Ngoc-Ho (1997) and Ngoc-Ho & Yaldwyn (1997) reviewed the living species of Laomedia and provided a key to the genus. Poore (1994) provided a key to world genera.

Diagnosis

Midposterior margin of carapace evenly concave. Rostrum bluntly rounded, margin rarely denticulate, or bluntly triangular, margin denticulate. Maxilla 2 scaphognathite with several long setae on end of posterior lobe. Chelipeds fingers chelate, or simple, palm of propodus with prominent spines opposing dactylus. Pereopods 2 simple.

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

Anker, A., & Pachelle, P.P.G. 2016. Mud-shrimps of the genus Axianassa Schmitt, 1924 from Panama, with description of two new species (Decapoda: Gebiidea: Laomediidae). Zootaxa 4111: 101-125

Dakin, W.J. & Colefax, A.N. 1940. The plankton of the Australian coastal waters of New South Wales, Part No. 1: With special reference to the seasonal distribution, the phytoplankton, and the planktonic Crustacea, and in particular, the Copepoda and crustacean larvae, together with an account of the more frequent members of the groups Mysidacea, Euphausiacea, Amphipoda, Mollusca, Tunicata, Chaetognatha, and some reference to the fish eggs and fish larvae. University of Sydney, Department of Zoology, Monograph 1: 1-215 303 figs 4 pls

Komai, T. 2014. A new species of the mud shrimp genus Axianassa (Crustacea: Decapoda: Gebiidea: Axianassidae) from Japan. Species Diversity 19: 141-149

Ngoc-Ho, N. 1997. The genus Laomedia De Haan, 1841 with description of a new species from Vietnam (Crustacea, Thalassinidae, Laomediidae). Zoosystematica Rossica 19: 729-747

Ngoc-Ho, N. & Yaldwyn, J.C. 1997. A new species of Laomedia (Crustacea, Thalassinidea, Laomediidae) from Australia with notes on its ecology. Zoosystematica Rossica 19: 337-343

Poore, G.C.B. 1994. A phylogeny of the families of Thalassinidea (Crustacea: Decapoda) with keys to families and genera. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 54: 79-120

Yaldwyn, J.C. & Wear, R.G. 1970. Preliminary description of a new burrowing mud-shrimp from eastern Australia (Crustacea, Macrura Reptantia, Laomediidae). The Australian Zoologist 15: 384-385, 1 fig.

History of changes