(Figure 21)
Hemiproto wigleyi McCain, 1968: 65–68, figs 31, 32c–e. McCain and Steinberg, 1970: 51. Ortiz et al., 2002, fig. 33. Diaz et al., 2005: 3, 7–8, 24, fig. 15. Winfield, Escobar-Briones, et al., 2007: 50, fig. 19.
Station 31, one male (used for figures), CYMX-54-PY.
Coche Island, Venezuela.
Southeastern Florida (McCain 1968); California (Watling 1997); Gulf of Mexico (Winfield et al. 2006); Caribbean Sea (McCain 1968; Diaz et al. 2005; Ortiz et al. 2006; Ortiz and Lalana 2010).
CUB: La Habana (Ortiz et al. 2006). MEX: Campeche Sound and Veracruz continental shelf (Winfield et al. 2006); Northwestern Yucatan Shelf (present study).
Hemiproto wigleyi has been collected from Thalassia testudinum, Halimeda opuntia (Diaz et al. 2005), washed algae (Ortiz et al. 2006), and soft bottoms (Winfield et al. 2006; present study). The depth range reported is 25–76 m (Winfield et al. 2006; Winfield and Escobar-Briones 2008; LeCroy et al. 2009).
Monotypic genus. The main characteristics to identify this species are: molar absent; mandibular palp 3-articulate; pereopods 3 and 4, 6-articulate; pereopod 5, 5-articulate; abdomen of male with two pairs of small 1-articulate appendages, only one pair in females (McCain 1968). The size of the specimen examined in the present study is 2.63 mm, which is roughly three times smaller than the male specimen examined by McCain (1968), with a size of 7.5 mm. That size represents a juvenile because in addition to the small size, the number of articles in antennae and the number of grasping spines on propodus of gnathopod 1 and 2 and propodus of pereopod 3 and 4 are fewer, compared with the description in McCain (1968).