PROC. BIOL. SOC. WASH. 104(1), 1991, pp. 49-54 UPOGEBIA SPINISTIPULA, A NEW BURROWING SHRIMP FROM THE FLORIDA SHELF, NORTHEASTERN GULF OF MEXICO (DECAPODA: THALASSINIDEA: UPOGEBIIDAE) Austin B. Williams and Richard W. Heard Abstract. — Upogebia spinistipula, a new species of burrowing thalassinidean shrimp was taken in box core samples of live bottom material from a sector of the continental shelf in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico that lies off Panama City to Cape Romano, Florida. The rostrum of the small species (carapace length ca. 1 mm) resembles that of U. lepta from the tropical eastern Pacific, the tail fan resembles that of most species of Upogebia in the western hemi-sphere having an essentially rectangular telson, and the ventrally spined an-tennular and antennal peduncles resemble those of west Pacific species in the recently described genus Gebiacantha. The species apparently has no close relatives in the western Atlantic. An undescribed species of Upogebia Leach, [1814] was discovered in box core samples taken on the continental shelf (car-bonate platform, see Rezak et al. 1990) of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. The col-lections were part of a Minerals Manage-ment Service (then Bureau of Land Man-agement) sponsored baseline study referred to as the Mississippi-Alabama-Florida (MAFLA) Outer Continental Shelf Study (OCS) (see Phillips et al. 1990). Material used in the present investigation came from 1 1 of the 87 MAFLA stations distributed in 9 transects that were sampled for benthic infauna during 1975-1978. Stations where the new species was taken were scattered from southeast of Panama City, Florida, to west of Cape Romano in water depths rang-ing from 10 to 177 m (Fig. 1). All of the specimens are damaged, and many are frag-mentary with legs usually detached or miss-ing. The holotype and a series of paratypes have been deposited in the National Mu-seum of Natural History (USNM). Para-types to be transferred to the Museum of the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL) are indicated. Upogebia spinistipula, new species Figs. 2-3 Material examined. —^13.. 2211, 27°56'29.5"N, 83°52'59.5"W, 43 m, coarse sand: USNM 239251, Holotype <5, Nov 1977.-239252, Allotype 9, Jul 1976.-Paratypes: 239260, 1 1 5, 7 9 (2 ovig.), 1 juv., Jul 1975 (4 $ and 2 9 ovig. to be transferred to GCRL). -239261, 2 <5, 2 9 ovig., 2 other frags., Jul 1976.-239262, 1 9 ovig., Feb 1978.-239265,detachedlegs, 9 Aug 1977. Sta. 2528, 29°54'58.6"N, 86°04'58.5"W, 37 m, coarse sand: 239253, 3 9 ovig. & 1 prob-able (5, Feb 1977.-1 $ cephalothorax, Sep 1977.-2 9 (1 ovig.), Feb 1978. Sta. 2531, 29°47'58.9"N, 86°09'28.9"W, 45 m, coarse sand: 239254, 3 9 (1 frag.), 7 Feb 1976.-1 juv., Nov 1977. Sta. 2532, 29°46'N, 86°12.5'W, 52 m, coarse sand: 239255, 1 tiny cephalothorax, Jul 1976. Sta. 2533, 29°42'59.9"N, 85°15'28.6"W, 67 m, coarse sand: 239256, 1 9 ovig., 26 Sep 1975.-1 tiny juv., 8 Feb 1976. Sta. 2534, 29°40'N, 86°17'W, 73 m, coarse sand: 239257, 1 3, Jul 1976. Sta. 2419, 29°46'59.8"N, 84°05'00.2"W, 10 m, medium fine sand:
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