Accepted by S. Ahyong: 10 Jun. 2014; published: 1 Jul. 2014 ZOOTAXA ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) Copyright © 2014 Magnolia Press Zootaxa 3826 (3): 517–543 www.mapress.com/zootaxa/ Article 517 http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3826.3.5 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:6327000C-BCAF-4C66-BBA4-BF37032EBB5C The complete larval development of the mud shrimp Upogebia vasquezi (Gebiidea: Upogebiidae) reared in the laboratory DANIELLY BRITO DE OLIVEIRA 1,2 , JUSSARA MORETTO MARTINELLI-LEMOS 1 & FERNANDO ARAÚJO ABRUNHOSA 2 1 Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA), Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Laboratório de Biologia Pesqueira e Manejo dos Recursos Aquáticos, Grupo de Pesquisa em Ecologia de Crustáceos da Amazônia (GPECA). Avenida Perimetral, 2651, Bairro Montese, Belém, Pará, Brasil. E-mail: danybrito@ufpa.br; jussara@ufpa.br 2 Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA), Instituto de Estudos Costeiros, Campus Universitário de Bragança, Laboratório de Carcino- logia. Alameda Leandro Ribeiro s/n, Bairro Aldeia, Bragança, Pará, Brasil. E-mail: faraujo@ufpa.br Abstract The larval development of Upogebia vasquezi consists of four zoeal stages and a megalopa. In the present study, each larval stage was described and illustrated in detail. The first two stages are re-described in order to provide a detailed com- parison with the data available for this species recorded in a previous study. The morphological features of all the stages are compared with those of the larvae of other Upogebia species reported previously in the literature. Broad morphological similarities and distinctions were found among most Upogebia species. The main interspecific variations in the morphol- ogy of the zoeal stages are the segmentation pattern of the antennular endopod and number of aesthetascs, the number of setae on the scaphognathite and the presence or absence of a mandibular palp. Key words: Decapoda, taxonomy, thalassinideans, zoea, megalopa, larvae Introduction The thalassinideans comprise the infraorders Axiidea de Saint Laurent, 1979 and Gebiidea de Saint Laurent, 1979 (Robles et al. 2009), two distinct groups of decapods that have converged morphologically and ecologically as burrowing forms, commonly known as mud lobsters and mud or ghost shrimps (Dworschak et al. 2012). These groups are an important component of the macroinfauna of intertidal and subtidal environments and are distributed throughout the world (Kornienko 2013), with species diversity increasing from high latitudes towards the equator (Dworschak 2000). By the early twenty-first century the total number of known thalassinidean species (Kornienko 2013) had increased to approximately 646 (De Grave et al. 2009; Ahyong et al. 2011). Given the contentious status of some species and the difficulties of identifying the larvae of most taxa, detailed information on larval development is available for only around one quarter of known genera (Pohle et al. 2011). Upogebia Leach, 1814 and the synonymized genders Gebiacantha Ngoc-Ho, 1989 and Austinogebia Ngoc-Ho, 2001 (Sakai 2006) constitute the thalassinidean group for which larval development is best understood (Pohle et al. 2011). Few studies are available on the larval stages of the Upogebia species found on the Brazilian coast (Boschi 1981), that is, Upogebia acanthura Coelho, 1973, U. brasiliensis Holthuis, 1956, U. careospina Williams, 1993, U. inomissa Williams, 1993, U. omissa Gomes Corrêa, 1968, U. omissago Williams, 1993, U. marina Coelho, 1973, U. noronhensis Fausto-Filho, 1969, U. paraffinis Williams, 1993, and U. vasquezi Ngoc-Ho, 1989 (Melo 1999; Nucci & Melo 2001; Oliveira et al. 2012a). Complete larval development has been documented only in U. paraffinis (Melo & Brossi-Garcia 2000). More recently, the two initial stages of the larvae of U. vasquezi were described in detail by Oliveira et al. (2012b). Upogebia vasquezi inhabits coastal habitats in the western Atlantic, between southern Florida and the Bahamas, in the north, and Central and South America, to the south, including Brazil (Melo 1999; Hernández-