Propejanice, Myers & Desiderato, 2019

Myers, Alan A. & Desiderato, Andrea, 2019, A new genus and species of Aoridae (Amphipoda, Senticaudata), Propejanice lagamarensis gen. nov. sp. nov. from Brazil, Zootaxa 4629 (2), pp. 287-293 : 288

Propejanice gen. nov.

Diagnosis. Head anteroventral margin moderately excavate; ocular lobes obtuse, only moderately produced. Antenna 1 peduncular article 3 much shorter than peducular article 2. Antenna 2 subpediform. Mandible palp article 3 not expanded distally. Gnathopod 1 enlarged in male, larger than gnathopod 2, carpochelate. Gnathopod 2 in male slender, setose, merus elongate, subquadrate, divergent. Pereopod 7 longer than pereopod 6, Uropod 3 uniramous.

Type species. Propejanice lagamarensis sp. nov. by monotypy.

Etymology. From the name of its closest relative Janice (a name derived from the Hebrew Yochanan), with the Latin prefix ‘prope’ meaning close to.

Remarks. Propejanice gen. nov. closely resembles Janice Griffiths, 1973 .The two genera share the long divergent merus on gnathopod 2, but Propejanice gen. nov. differs in the carpochelate male gnathopod 1 (subchelate in Janice ) in which the posterodistal margin of the carpus is drawn out into a long acute spine. Janice spinidactyla Griffiths is known from a single male specimen. It closely resembles the female of Propejanice lagamarensis sp. nov. described here. If further material of Janice spinidactylus Griffiths is available and it is shown that Griffith’s specimen is in fact a female and furthermore that males of the species have a carpochelate gnathopod 1, then Propejanice may have to be synonymised with Janice . For the moment we accept that the unique specimen of Janice spinidactyla is, as indicated by Griffiths (1973) a male and accordingly we erect the genus Propejanice nov. gen. for P. lagamarensis sp. nov.

Myers & Lowry (2003), placed the little known genus Janice in the Unciolidae because of the close resemblance of the gnathopod 2 to that of the unciolid Paracorophium Stebbing, 1899 . It is clear now after study of material of the new genus, that Janice Griffths and Propejanice gen. nov. should both be correctly placed in the Aoridae and that the peculiar gnathopod 2 is a homoplasy.