Orthoprotella Mayerı 1903

Takeuchi, Ichiro & Lowry, James K., 2019, A taxonomic study on Orthoprotella and related genera (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Caprellidae) of New South Walesı Australia, Journal of Natural History 53 (17), pp. 1023-1059 : 1050-1051

Genus Orthoprotella Mayerı 1903

Diagnosis

Head fused (suture present) with pereonite 1. Antenna 1 well developed; flagellum with more than 2 articles. Antenna 2 well developed; flagellum with 2 articles. Mandible well developed; molar presentı well developed; palp 3-articulateı setal formula 1 – x – 1 or 1 – x – y – 1. Maxilliped well developed; inner plate (basal endite) smaller than outer plate (ischial endite); outer plate (ischial endite) well developed; palp article 3 with distal projection; palp article 4 well developed. Pereonite 4 clavate appendage absent. Pereonites 6 and 7 dorsal suture oblique or separated. Pereopod 3 vestigialı with 1 – 2 articles. Pereopod 4 vestigialı with 1 – 2 articles. Pereopod 5 well developedı with 7 articlesı with sparseı short setaeı with welldeveloped dactylus. Pereopods 6 and 7 well developedı with 7 articles. Gills on pereonites 3 and 4. Pleopods absent. Uropods 2 pairs. Uropod 1 uniramous. Uropod 2 vestigial (unclear). Telson (dorsal lobe) present.

Type species

Protella australis Haswellı 1879 ı original desgnation.

Included species

Orthoprotella includes 7 species: O. australis (Haswellı 1879) ; O. bicornis Lim et al. ı 2015; O. hamata Arimotoı 1981 ; O. mayeri K.H. Barnard 1916 ; O. melloi Quiteteı 1975 ; O. nana Guerra-Garcíaı 2004 ; O. spinigera Moriı 1996 .

Remarks

The diagnosis of the present genus was modified based on the description in the present study including type material of O. australis (Haswellı 1879) ı type species of the genusı provided by Takeuchi (1993).

Orthoprotella is the most similar genus to Protella Danaı 1852 but differs by the presence of distal projection in the third article of the mandibular palp and the lack of knob-like appendage on uropod 1 ( Table 1 ). The former characteristic was introduced as one of the generic diagnoses for the Caprellidae in the description of Metaprotella spp. (see Takeuchi and Lowry 2007a; Lim and Takeuchi 2012)ı and the latter was found in the redescription based on the old type specimens of Protella gracilis Danaı 1853 ı the type species of the genus Protella by Takeuchi et al. (2014). These characteristics are confirmed in the other species of Orthoprotella : O. bicornis Lim et al. ı 2015 (see Lim et al. 2015)ı O. mayeri K.H. Barnard 1916 (see Takeuchi and Lowry 2007b)ı O. nana Guerra-Garcíaı 2004 (see Guerra-García 2004)ı O. spinigera Moriı 1996 (see Mori 1996; Takeuchi and Inoue 2014). Since these characteristics in O. melloi Quiteteı 1975 and O. hamata Arimotoı 1981 are unclearı these two species are retained in Orthoprotella .