A redescription of Penaeus (Melicertus) Canaliculatus (Olivier, 1811), a wide-ranging Indo-West Pacific Shrimp (Crustacea, Decapoda, Penaeidae)

In the original description of Palaemon canaliculatus, from "mer des Indes", Olivier (1811) presented the following observations among other more general ones: carapace with median sulcus extending from near posterior margin to base of rostrum, and two lateral ones beginning at same level as median sulcus and reaching tip of rostrum; ventral margin of rostrum bearing single tooth near apex, and lateral margins of telson setose and slightly spinous (un peu épineux). These features indicate that his species is closely related to, if not one of, the following Indo-West Pacific Penaeus: P. japonicus Bate, 1888, P. latisulcatus latisulcatus Kishinouye, 1900, P. latisulcatus hathor Burkenroad, 1959, P. longistylus Kubo, 1943, and P. plebejus Hess, 1865, the only Penaeus in the region that possess all of these characters; however, all five are armed with well-developed spines on the telson. A few years later, Latreille (1818) published an illustration of P. canaliculatus in which telsonic spines are lacking. In 1837, H. Milne Edwards mentioned various differential characters of P. canaliculatus among which the lack of telsonic spines was included, and cited material from Celebes and I'lle-de-France (Mauritius Island). Later, De Haan (1849) identified material from Japanese waters — an area in which all species of Penaeus with long adrostral sulci possess spines on the telson — as P. canaliculatus. Nobili (1906) considered that De Haan's specimens were P. japonicus, but De Man (1911) indicated that they were probably members of P. latisulcatus. Since those works appeared, the name P. canaliculatus has been applied to Indo-West Pacific specimens with long adrostral sulci, which either lack or possess spines on the telson. For instance, Paulson (1875) applied the name