Descriptions of two new species of alpheid shrimps from Japan and Australia, with notes on taxonomy of Automate De Man, Coronalpheus Wicksten and Bermudacaris Anker and Iliffe (Crustacea : Decapoda : Caridea)

Two new species of the caridean family Alpheidae are described from distant Indo-Pacific localities: Automate hayashii sp. nov. from Hakodate Bay, southern Hokkaido, Japan, and Bermudacaris australiensis sp. nov. from the North-West Shelf off Western Australia. Automate hayashii appears closest to the poorly known A. salomoni Coutiere, 1908. Bermudacaris australiensis sp. nov., the second species of the genus, represents the first discovery of the genus in the Indo-Pacific. The type species of Bermudacaris Anker and Iliffe, 2000, B. harti Anker and Iliffe, 2000, was described from anchialine caves of Bermuda, while the unique specimen of Bermudacaris australiensis sp. nov. was collected from an apparently typical marine environment. Relationships among the species of Automate De Man, 1888, Bermudacaris and Coronalpheus Wicksten, 1999 are discussed. Characters separating these three closely related genera, including the development of the rostrum, the shape of the eye-stalks, the absence of the appendix masculina, and the features of the first pereopods, are reassessed. Three informal species groups are recognized in Automate, showing certain heterogeneity of this genus.