The majority of the coral reef shrimps Palaemonidae are associated with various invertebrates. The target group of our study is basally separated from the main group of symbiotic palaemonids and contains, besides species-rich genera Cuapetes and Palaemonella, also eight related genera. An interest of complex is its diverse lifestyle (predominate free-living, facultative and obligatory symbiosis).The phylogenetic relationships were reconstructed by four-gene analysis (16S rRNA, CO1, H3, and 18S rRNA) by use of Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference. The Ancestral State Reconstruction analysis (ASR) was used to highlight the initial symbioses among ancestors. According to present phylogeny, the polyphyletic genus Cuapetes is represented by four independent lineages, whereas Palaemonella seems to be paraphyletic including the genus Vir and Atlantic Cuapetes americanus. Furthermore, a representative of a new genus was found in a material from Papua New Guinea raising the number of known genera within the complex to 11. Present ASR analysis highlights the symbiotic shrimps as evolved via independent switches from free-living forms to both separated ectosymbionts of cnidarians (C. amymone, C. kororensis and C. nilandensis), echinoderms (P. pottsi) and to whole clades of symbionts. Taxa within clades of scleractinian coral associated (Vir spp.; Anapontonia-Ischnopontonia-Harpilius-Philarius) developed through sympatric host-switching speciation events inside their clades. The target group is thus suitable model group for evolutionary studies on primary switches to symbioses in marine shrimps.