Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 26, 2026

Potamalpheops

Potamalpheops is a genus of shrimp in the family Alpheidae. It was originally erected by Powell in 1979 to house species from Africa. Later, Horton H. Hobbs, Jr. realised that the troglobitic shrimp he had described in 1973 from Oaxaca, Mexico as Alpheopsis stygicola, also belonged to the genus, and in 1991, A. J. Bruce described a new species from Australia, further expanding the genus' geographical range. It is now thought to represent a relict taxon from the Tethys Sea.

Last revised
Jun 26, 2026
Read time
≈ 3 min
Length
675 w
Citations
20
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Potamalpheops
Potamalpheops johnsoni
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Clade: Pancrustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Caridea
Family: Alpheidae
Genus: Potamalpheops
Powell, 1979
Type species
Potamalpheops pylorus
Powell, 1979

Potamalpheops is a genus of shrimp in the family Alpheidae. It was originally erected by Powell in 1979 to house species from Africa.1 Later, Horton H. Hobbs, Jr. realised that the troglobitic shrimp he had described in 1973 from Oaxaca, Mexico as Alpheopsis stygicola, also belonged to the genus,1 and in 1991, A. J. Bruce described a new species from Australia, further expanding the genus' geographical range.2 It is now thought to represent a relict taxon from the Tethys Sea.2

The following species are currently accepted as valid:3

  • Potamalpheops amnicus Yeo & Ng, 19974
  • Potamalpheops darwiniensis Bruce, 1993
  • Potamalpheops galle Anker, 20055
  • Potamalpheops hanleyi Bruce, 19912
  • Potamalpheops haugi (Coutière, 1906)
  • Potamalpheops johnsoni Anker, 20036
  • Potamalpheops kisi Marin, 20217
  • Potamalpheops miyai Yeo & Ng, 19974
  • Potamalpheops monodi (Sollaud, 1932)
  • Potamalpheops nazgul Christodoulou, Iliffe & De Grave, 20198
  • Potamalpheops palawensis Cai & Anker, 2004
  • Potamalpheops pininsulae Bruce & Iliffe, 19929
  • Potamalpheops pylorus Powell, 1979
  • Potamalpheops stygicola (Hobbs, 1973)1
  • Potamalpheops tigger Yeo & Ng, 19974
  • Potamalpheops tyrymembe Soledade, Santos & Almeida, 2014
  • Potamalpheops yamakawai Yamashita, Komai & Koreeda, 202410

An undescribed species from Taiwan thought to belong to this genus, dubbed the "purple zebra shrimp" or "purple crystal shrimp", is sometimes kept in aquaria.111213 Its mitogenome was studied in 2024. The following cladogram is based on this 2024 study:14

Alpheidae

Alpheus distinguendus

Alpheus hoplocheles

Alpheus bellulus

Alpheus brevicristatus

Alpheus inopinatus

Potamalpheops sp.

Alpheus japonicus

Alpheus randalli

Leptalpheus forceps

Synalpheus microneptunus

Palaemonidae
References

References

  1. Hobbs, Horton H. Jr. (1983). "The African shrimp genus Potamalpheops in Mexico (Decapoda, Alpheidae)". Crustaceana. 44 (2): 221–224. doi:10.1163/156854083x00848. JSTOR 20103823.
  2. Bruce, A. J. (1991). "The "African" shrimp genus Potamalpheops in Australia, with the description of P. hanleyi, new species (Decapoda: Alpheidae)". Journal of Crustacean Biology. 11 (4): 629–638. doi:10.2307/1548531. JSTOR 1548531.
  3. de Mazancourt, Valentin (2022). "Potamalpheops Powell, 1979". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
  4. Yeo, D.C.J.; Ng, P.K.L. (3 June 1996). "The alpheid shrimp genus Potamalpheops Powell, 1979, (Crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea: Alpheidae) from Southeast Asia, with descriptions of three new species". Journal of Natural History. 31 (2): 163–190. doi:10.1080/00222939700770111.
  5. "Presence of the Alpheid Shrimp Genus Potamalpheops Powell, 1979 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea) in South Asia, With Description of a New Species From Sri Lanka" (PDF). The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 12: 31–37. 2005. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 December 2025. Retrieved 26 February 2026.
  6. Anker, Arthur (December 2003). "Alpheid shrimps from the mangroves and mudflats of Singapore. Part I. Genera Salmoneus, Athanas and Potamalpheops, with the description of two new species (Crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea)" (PDF). The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 51 (2).
  7. Marin, Ivan N. (2021). "A new species of the genus Potamalpheops (Crustacea: Decapoda: Alpheidae) from the intertidal mangrove swamps of South Vietnam" (PDF). Arthropoda Selecta. 30 (2): 179–191. doi:10.15298/arthsel.30.2.05. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 August 2024. Retrieved 26 February 2026.
  8. Christodoulou, Magdalini; Iliffe, Thomas M.; De Grave, Sammy (2019). "A new anchialine cave dwelling species of Potamalpheops Powell, 1979 from the Solomon Islands (Crustacea, Decapoda, Alpheidae)". Crustacean Research. 48: 11–21. doi:10.18353/crustacea.48.0_11.
  9. Bruce, A. J.; Iliffe, T.M. (June 1992). "Potamalpheops pininsulae sp. nov., a new stygiophilic shrimp from New Caledonia (Crustacea: Decapoda: Alpheidae)". Stygologia. 7 (4): 231–242.
  10. Yamashita, Ryunosuke; Komai, Tomoyuki; Koreeda, REO (17 December 2024). "Potamalpheops yamakawai n. sp., representing the first record of the genus from Japan (Decapoda: Caridea: Alpheidae)". Zootaxa. 5555 (1): 91–104. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5555.1.6. PMID 40173595.
  11. Sartore, Joel. "INV005-00368". Retrieved 26 February 2026.
  12. "Potamalpheops sp". Nanocaridina. Retrieved 26 February 2026.
  13. "Taiwan Purple Crystal Shrimp (Potamalpheops sp.)". Aqua Imports. Archived from the original on 20 March 2023. Retrieved 26 February 2026.
  14. Das, Sofia Priyadarsani; Kao, Yu-Kai; Nguyen, Huu-The; Lin, Yu-Ru; Liao, Zhen-Hao; Hu, Yeh-Fang; Nan, Fan-Hua (21 November 2024). "Unraveling the Complete Mitochondrial Genome of Potamalpheops Sp. (Purple Zebra Shrimp) (Crustacea: Decapoda) Provides Insights Into Its Phylogenetic Relationships and Gene Order Rearrangements". Ecology and Evolution. 14 (11) e70546. doi:10.1002/ece3.70546. PMC 11581787. PMID 39575143.