In April 2015, sharp-eyed Florida scuba diver Ariane Dimitris was diving off Lauderdale-by-the-Sea when she came across an unusual translucent shrimp covered in bright red dots. The tiny but distinctive crustacean would prove to be a species unknown to science – but it is only now that it has been accorded her family name.
“Since I found the first one, I have found about 40 of them, unusually in pairs, and one had eggs,” she told Divernet. “I once found them on descent on a boat-dive – which was surprising, because I had never found them that deep before.” Most of the shrimps she came across on reefs shallower than 18m.
Divers might sometimes wonder what it would be like to discover a new marine species and have it named after them. Dimitris, a scuba instructor who formerly conducted critter-spotting guided dives on Florida’s Atlantic coast, has had several opportunities to find out.
After her first sighting of the dotty coral shrimp eight years ago she collected not only photographs but specimens, which she shared with the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville. Experts there confirmed that the animal was one that had not previously been described.
Now dubbed Microprosthema dimitrisorum, the shrimp features in a paper published this month in Zootaxa. It is described as “translucent white, with scattered, bright ruby-red, rounded dots or more irregularly shaped patches”. It also has a narrower head than other shrimps in the Microprosthema genus, and its spines protrude from its body in an unfamiliar arrangement.
“The shrimp is named to honour my father Emilios Dimitris and my brother Jason Dimitris,” says Dimitris, who explains that she has already been rewarded by having two nudibranchs found in Florida named after her.
One of these she did not in fact discover, but helped on its way to being described in 2013 – Melibe arianeae. Another, which she was the first diver to find, was named Dondice arianeae last year.
“I thought it would be named for my father, but the people writing the paper decided to name it after me,” she says. “And there is at least one more nudibranch I’ve been waiting over nine years to have named to honour my father – who unfortunately died before the paper was published – and my niece.”
‘I need a dive butler!’
The first Microprosthema dimitrisorum shrimp Dimitris spotted had been lurking under a rock in an area of rubble. “They measure under 1cm in any direction, and are almost impossible to see because they’re clear,” she says. “You can see them only when there is contrast, like if they’re in front of something dark.
“It feels great to finally have it named after so many years of looking for them, photographing them and sending them to the authors of the publication to study and prove that they are a new species – and not a colour form of another species.”
Diver Mickey Charteris became the second person to make an independent sighting of the dotted shrimp, relatively recently and on the far side of the Caribbean in Roatan, Honduras. He recognised it from the photographs Dimitris had taken at various Florida Atlantic coast locations.
Now she is seeking a sponsor to help her acquire a new macro camera set-up “so that I can get more and better photos of the super-tiny creatures I find,” she says. “It’s very difficult to ‘hunt’ and get photos, because these tiny animals dart away so quickly. I need a dive butler!
“I would love to be part of teams searching for new species, especially in the Indo-Pacific. I returned from the Philippines recently, and the creatures there are phenomenal! I want to dive and explore and search as much as possible – it is definitely my passion and my high.”
Also on Divernet: Damselfish treat shrimps as workforce, Shrimp hunt in Swanage, Sea-slug supremo tags 14 new nudis, Diver’s rainbow nudi a first for UK
Excellent Article, Congrats Arianne! She sure has a good eye to spot those tiny sea critters it’s so fascinating.
Keep exploring!
Wonderful article. I loved the photos throughout! Congratulations!