First record of Alpheus leptocheles Banner and Banner, 1975 (Crustacea, Alpheidae) in southeast coast of India

Alpheus leptocheles Banner and Banner, 1975 (Decapoda, Alpheidae) is a compressed chela snapping shrimp which was reported from Papua New Guinea earlier. The compressed nature of major chela, the shape of the orbitorostral front and the flattened dactyli of the third pereopod put this species in the Brevirostris group of the genus Alpheus (Banner). Most of the characteristic features are very close to the type specimen of A. leptocheles collected in New Guinea. This shrimp usually inhabits low depth river mouth region of marine bottoms; however, recently we have record for the first time in muddy bottom at an unusual depth of about 250-300 m in Southeast coast of India. This record may extends the distribution pattern of A. leptocheles in Bay of Bengal. Moreover, it may perhaps represent an additional alpheid species for the Indian marine faunal list.