Palaemonella burnsi is a species of shrimp in the family Palaemonidae, from Maui, Hawaii. This species is closest to , which it resembles in the broad in which the lamella overreaches the final tooth, and in the unarmed of the second pereiopods. It differs from P. lata in the much longer fused part of the two branches of the upper antennular flagellum, in the relatively much longer fingers and shorter palm of the second legs, in the unarmed carpus of the second legs. It is named after John A. Burns, Governor of Hawaii, for declaring the Ahiki Kinau area a nature reserve.