At several occasions red coloured caridean shrimps have been reported from tropical land-locked saltwater pools. These pools are situated at some distance from the sea, but, because the level of the water rises and falls with the tides, must have subterranean connections with the sea. The shrimps belong to species that so far have not been found outside this special type of habitat, although some have a rather extensive geographical distribution. Apart from the peculiar habitat in which they are found and apart from their red coloration, there is very little that these species have in common. The 11 species so far found exclusively in these pools belong to 9 different genera and to 5 different families (see also Holthuis, 1963; Chace & Manning, 1972). It is suggested now to use the term "anchialine" (from the Greek anchialos, near the sea) to indicate this type of habitat, rather than to have to define it each time as "pools with no surface connection with the sea, containing salt or brackish water, which fluctuates with the tides". Recently, I received unusually interesting caridean material taken from several of such anchialine pools in the Indo-West Pacific region. This material was provided by various persons. In November 1971 and again in March 1972 Dr. Ch. Lewinsohn, Zoology Department, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel, and Dr. F. D. Por, Zoology Department, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, submitted to me a number of shrimps collected in a saltwater pool near the southern tip of Sinai Peninsula near Ras Muhammad. This material contained a new species of Periclimenes and a new genus and species of Hippolytidae. To my great surprise, the latter new genus and species of Hippolytidae was also represented in Pacific material from Maui Island (Hawaiian Archipelago) and Funafuti (Ellice Islands)

Zoologische Verhandelingen

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Naturalis journals & series

Holthuis, L. (1973). Caridean Shrimps found in Land-Locked Saltwater Pools at four Indo-West Pacific Localities (Sinai Peninsula, Funafuti Atoll, Maui and Hawaii Islands), with the description of one new genus and four new species. Zoologische Verhandelingen, 128(1), 1–48.