Leucothoidae sp.

About Leucothoidae sp.

This record documents historical reports of a small marine amphipod in the family Leucothoidae from the Kauaʻi harbor and reef surveys, without claiming a verified species identification. Coles et al. (2004), Bishop Museum Technical Report 29a, printed page 128, listed Paraleucothoe flindersi in their present study at KA1 (Nawiliwili Harbor), KA2 (Nawiliwili reef), and KA3 (Port Allen Harbor). The survey is associated with 2002 and is historical evidence, not a current abundance estimate. Thomas (2015) described Leucothoe eltoni and attributed the earlier Hawaiian reports under P. flindersi to that species; the distinguishing palp and gnathopod characters require examining specimens. Thomas did not document examination of the Kauaʻi 2002 animals, so their species and even genus cannot be assigned from the published station table alone. Coles also placed BPBM S11293 (1996) under the Port Allen KA3 row, but Thomas explicitly located BPBM S11292–293 at Pearl Harbor, Oʻahu, station 6, on 16 April 1996. That voucher cannot presently be treated as independent Kauaʻi evidence. The KA1–KA3 survey reports remain documented under their original name; voucher/locality reconciliation and re-identification are needed before publishing a species plate or assigning an introduced status to the Kauaʻi material. Present-day occurrence and trend were not established by the cited sources.