A report on a small collection of shrimps from the Kenya National Marine Parks at Malindi, with notes on selected species

The marine caridean fauna of East Africa has been little studied. Prior to World War 1, German authors produced a number of general studies but the emphasis of these papers was on crabs. Most of the carideans are reported from Zanzibar. Hilgendorf (1869) reported two unidentified species of Alpheus from Zanzibar. Pfeffer (1889) reported Coralliocaris graminea also from Zanzibar and in 1894 Ortmann added the hippolytid Saron marmoratus. Lenz (1905) reported three pontoniine shrimps, two hippolytids and six alpheids from Zanzibar. In 1905 also, Nobili reported Gelastocaris paronae from Zanzibar. The first World War terminated these studies and there seems to have been little further interest until Taramelli (1955) reported again on the crustacea of Zanzibar, recording five species of shrimps, three of which were not previously recorded. The present study is based upon the results of collecting from shallow water in the Casuarina Point and Watamu National Marine Parks at Malindi, Kenya, over a period of three days during spring tide conditions, in March, 1973. Collections were kept as generalized as possible and no special efforts were made to concentrate on special habitats. A total of 67 species are represented in the material collected, but these are considered to represent only a small portion of the total variety present. The collection is noteworthy for the presence of a number of rare or little known species as well as one new species, but also for the absence of a considerable number of common and well known shrimps that have been found to be widespread on East African coasts. It is probable that further collections could readily double or even treble the number of species known from the Parks. The positions of the localities at which collections were made are approxi-