A new species of scleractinian associated shrimp of the genus Palaemonella (Crustacea, Decapoda, Palaemonidae) with a redescription of Palaemonella orientalis Dana, 1852.

A new species of Palaemonella, P. rubrolineata sp. nov., is described on the basis of material collected from pocilloporid corals in Indonesia and Vanuatu. The new species is most closely related to P. orientalis, another tropical Indo-West Pacific species usually found in association with pocilloporid and acroporid corals. The new species can be distinguished from P. orientalis based on the presence of a hepatic spine, the more slender rostrum, body and longer appendages, the pleura of the fifth abdominal segment having a posteroventral tooth, the absence of distal rows of long serrate setae on the fingers of the first pereiopods, and in having the cutting edges of the second chela as well as the joints of the pereiopods dark red colored.