Two new records of species of Leptochela Stimpson, 1860 (Decapoda, Caridea, Pasiphaeidae) from China

Two pasiphaeid shrimps, Leptochela (Leptochela) irrobusta Chace, 1976 and Leptochela (Leptochela) chacei Hayashi, 1995, were collected in samples from the South China Sea, marking the first time these species have been found in Chinese waters and thus as Chinese fauna. These two pasiphaeid species belong to the genus Leptochela Stimpson, 1860. L. (L.) chacei was previously known to be distributed in tropical regions: Viet-Nam, New Caledonia and Madagascar. This paper represents its first record from a temperate zone, which is unusual for its habitation. These two species are redescribed in detail and their current zoogeographical distributions are discussed. In addition to these two species, five species of Leptochela have previously been recorded from China. We used these species to provide a key to the Leptochela species from China.